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I.IFE, 

WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

OF 

THOMAS JEFFERSON. 



) ^ 



SKETCHES 



OF THE 



LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 



OF 



THOMAS JEFFBRSOIV. 



SELECTIONS OF THE MOST VALUABLE PORTIONS OF HIS TOLUMINOUS AND UNRIVALED 

PRIVATE CORRESPONDENCE. 



BY B. L. RAYNER. 



■ For I have sworn upon the Altar of God, eternal hostility against every 
form of tyranny over the mind of man." — Priv, Corres. 



NEW YORK: 

PUBLISHED BY A. FRANCIS AND W. BOARDMAN. 

1832. 



District of Connecticut, to wit : 

Be IT REMEMBERED, That On the twelfth day of June, Anno Domini 1831, 
Alfred Francis and William Boardman, of the said district, have deposited in 
'^this office the title of a book, the title of which is in the words following, to wit : 
" Sketches of the Life, Writings, and Opinions of Thomas Jefferson ; with Se- 
lections of the most valuable portions of his voluminous and unrivalled Private 
Correspondence. By B. L.Rayner. 'For I have sworn upon the altar of God, 
eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.' — P. Carry 
The right whereof they claim as proprietors m conformity with an act of Gon- 
jrress, entitled " An act to amend the several acts respecting copy rights." 
CHARLES A. INGERSOLL, 
\ Clerk of the District of ConnecHcul. 



-Page 34, fifth line from the top, for ' 1769' read 1765. 

372, ninth Ime from botttom, for ' thirty-six' read sixteen. 
397, third line from top, for ' Jay' read Marshal. 

(Note.— Owing to the extension of the volume about 50 pages beyond what 
/as contemplated, the Appendix is necessarily omitted. 



i^^io^ 






PREFACE. 



^5; 



The iiiaterials for this volume are principally derived from the 
posthumous works of Mr. Jefferson himself, lately published by 
his grandson, Thomas Jefferson Randolph. These vv^orks were re- 
ceived with extraordinary approbation by one great portion of the 
iiublic, as was the case, indeed, with every thing that ever came 
from that remarkable man ; and by another considerable portion, 
M'ith a corresponding degree of dissatisfaction, always to be expect- 
ed from the well known opinions of the Author on certain funda- 
mental points of principle, and the strongly marked division of pub- 
lic sentiment on those points. 

These works extend through four large octavo volumes, of about 
500 pages each ; nearly the whole of which is occupied with the Cor- 
respondence of the Author, public and private. In the first volume 
is an auto-memoir of about ninety pages, exhibiting a brief outhne 
of the first forty-seven years only of the Author's life, and termina- 
ting, unfortunately, at the precise epoch when his history began to 
assume the highest importance. It appears in the rough form of 
' memoranda and recollections of dates and facts,' taken simply as 
lie states, 'for his own more ready reference, and for the information 
of his family.' Besides containing many interesting notices of his 
personal and family history, the Memoir is enriched by many im- 
portant particulars relating to the origin and early stages of the 
Revolution, and the establishment of the Republic ; by the Debates 
in Congress on the great question of Independence, with the histor- 
ical circumstances attending the preparation and adoption oi that 
memorable instrument ; "and by a narrative, interspersed with sage 
political reflections, of the causes and early course of ile FreiicJi 
Revolution, as exhibited to the observation of the Author, during" 
his diplomatic residence at Paris. This portion of the wort derives 
])eculiar value from the circumstance of its containing theVirstdis-. 
closure to the world, in an authentic form, of the Debates on the 
memorable occasion of Independence, and from the probablity, or 
rather certainty, that a like knowledge of them is not to be expect- 
ed from any other source. Appended to the Memoir, or withh the 
body of it. are a variety of ancient productions of Mr. Jeffeison. 
which will be new to most readers. Among them are, a pij.per 
drawn up in 1774, as instructions to the Delegates in Congress mm 
Virginia, being the first formal enunciation of the political doctriVs 



» PREFACE. 

of the Revolution — A Penal Code, being part of a Revised Code of 
Laws executed by himself and others, in 1776, with reference to the 
humane principles of a Republican form of government — An his- 
torical account of the overthrow of the Church establishment in Vir- 
ginia, always considered by the Author as one of his best efforts in the 
cause of Liberty — And an elaborate paper, drafted in 1 784, on the 
establishment of a uniform system of Coinage and Currency, which 
laid the foundation of the present system in the United States. At 
the end of the fourth Volume are about eighty pages of what are 
quaintly denominated Anas ; being Notes of Conversations held 
with President Washington, Mr. Adams, General Hamilton, and 
others, while he was Secretary of State, or Vice President ; and 
Memoranda of Cabinet Councils, committed to paper on the spot, 
and filed : the whole "combining to show the views and tendencies 
of parties, from the year 1790 to 1800, and preserved for the purpose 
of furnishing " their testimony against the only history of that pe- 
riod which pretends to have been compiled from authentic and un- 
pubhshed documents." 

The remainder of the four volumes consists entirely of tiie (.'or- 
respondence of the Author, chiefly private and coafidential, from 
the year 1775 to his death. During the greater portion of his life, 
Mr. Jeuerson wrote with a polygraph or copying press, which ena- 
bled him to preserve with ease a regular file of his letters from year 
to year. These letters are addressed to a great variety of individ- 
uals in this, and in foreign countries. They comprise an immense 
range of information, and in many instances, regular Essays on 
subjects of History, Politics, Science, Morals, and Religion. 

Taken all in all, this posthumous work is the richest auto-bio- 
graphical deposite, and one of the most important publications ever 
presented to the world. Viewed in the light of Political History, 
Philosophy and Literature, it abounds with relations of momentous 
import, with reflections of consunmiate wisdom and profound obser- 
vation, conveyed in a style of unrivalled felicity and pov/er : and it 
supplies the record of many important transactions connected witli 
our government, of which no authentic memorials had been pre- 
served. But it is in the light of a private revelation, pushing its 
fearless disclosures into the inmost recesses of the mind and charac- 
ter of theman, that its most distinguishing excellence consists. We 
have hee the ungarbled contents of the Cabinet of the Author, 
graduaiy accumulating through an era among the most momentous 
in the amals of the world, and of which himself was a principal 
actor, hcessantly placed in the most trying situations which it af- 
fordet'. This vast collection of letters, compiled from the unrevised 
maniscripts of the Writer, thrown ofl'" on the spur of the occasion. 
in tie freedom of unrestrained confidence, and spreading over a 
peri«d of fift}'^ years, have opened the folding-doors to tiie cliaracter 
of Hr. Jefferson, and introduced us into the sanctuary of his most 
secret meditations. They derive essential importance from the fact 



PREFACE. \i 

tiuii at the time they were written, the Author had no conception 
of their ever being made pubUc. On this point we have the au- 
thority of tlie Editor, who states in his Preface, that " the historical 
parts of the Letters, and the entire publication, have the rare value 
of coming from one of the chief actors himself, and of being writ- 
ten not for the public eye, but in the freedom and confidence of 
private friendship.'"' 

It would undoubtedly be a hnppy circumstance for this country, 
and for the mass of mankind, besides serving, if possible, to enhance 
the reputation of the revered Author, if these works could obtain a 
circulation which should place them in the hands of every indi- 
vidual ; for if any thing could give stability to those principles; 
which form alike the basis of his renown, and the elements of the 
splendid structure of free government which he was chiefly instru- 
mental in establishing, it would be such an extensive dissemination 
of his Writings. Unfortunately, however, the form in which they 
have appeared, is not the most advantageous to the accomplishment 
of this desirable purpose. The publication is too voluminous, and 
consequently too expensive, to admit of a general introduction 
among all classes ; nor is the mode of arrangement the best adapted 
10 its reception into ordinary use as a work of reference. 

These considerations have suggested the plan of the present un- 
dertaking, which aspires to no liiglier claims than that of an ana- 
lytic, and, it is hoped, a well assorted generalization of the original 
publication. It has been the leading object of the compilation, to 
condense the most valuable substance of the four, within the com- 
pass of one volume, and to supply what are presumed to be essen- 
tiid wants of the former, by interweaving a connected narrative of 
;.he Author's Life, by systematizing the contents as much as possi- 
i>le, and furnishing the whole with a definite and copious Index. 
All the great political papers of Mr. Jetierson, contained in the ori- 
ginal works, have been copied into this, or their substance faithfully 
stated ; and many others, not therein contained, have been procured 
from other sources, and likewise introduced. Among the latter, are 
the Answer of Congress to the 'Conciliatory Pioposition' of Lord 
North ; the celebrated bill for the establishment of Religious Free- 
dom ; and the first Inaugural Address of the Author, on his eleva- 
tion to the Presidency — inserted at length ; an analysis of his Re- 
ports, while Secretary of State, on Coins, Weights and Measures, 
on the Fisheries, and on Commerce and Navigation ; the Pre- 
ambles to the bills for Abolishing the law of Entails, for the Gen- 
eral Diffusion of Knowledge, and other organic acts of the Virginia 
Legislature, at the establishment of the lepublican form of govern- 
ment ; and extracts of the most interesting portions of his ' Notes 
on Virginia.' 

The Selections from the Pi'ivate Correspondence of Mr. Jefferson, 
are extensive, and dispersed through the volume, with reference to 
the topic under consideration, more than to the order of time. Thev 

2 



10 PREFACE. 

will probably be found the most interesting portions of the volume. 
In making the quotations from this department, it has been the 
object to bring the greatest quantity of useful matter within the 
smallest space. Parts of letters, therefore, are usually introduced, — 
rarely the whole of any one, — sufficient to give the full sense of the 
Writer on any required point, and avoiding all extraneous observa- 
tions. The historical and biographical portions of the work have al- 
so been derived, in great part, from this pregnant source. In some 
cases the very language of the Author has been adopted, without 
invariably noting it with the usual mark of credit. In all such 
cases, however, the style or the sentiment will be sufiiciently distin- 
guishable to place it where it belongs. Some parts of the narrative 
riiay appear overwrought with eulogy, to some minds — not so much 
because the subject does not deserve it, as because it was inlinitely 
above the attempt. It is a difficult matter to commemorate the deeds 
of so distinguished a benefactor of the human race, without yield- 
ing in some degree to the influence of a passion which they arc so 
justly calculated to inspire : and the writer does not scruple to ad- 
mit, that he has less endeavored to restrain his own grateful feelings. 
than to infuse the same into the minds of his readers. 

The character of Tpioma.s Jefferson should be held up to all 
succeeding generations of American people, as the model on which 
they should habitually fix their eyes, and fashion their own charac- 
ters and principles. His unparalleled achievenaents and sacrifices 
iov their benefit, with the pre-eminent success, and the blissful close 
of his life, should be continually spread before them, as incitements 
to run the same virtuous and glorious career of action. His Wri- 
tings should enlighten the fireside of every citizen of this Republic, 
and form the text-book of the American statesman. His pure fame 
sliould be religiously cherished by his countrymen, as a most pre- 
(ious inheritance to them, and as meriting from man universally an 
everlasting remembrance. If the present volume shall have been 
instrumental in promoting these objects, it will have fulfilled its des- 
tiny. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 

Nativity of Mr. Jefferson. Peculiarity in tiie concealment of iiis birth-day — 
Curiosity felt to ascertain it— Motives of his conduct in this particular— Keply 
to the city authorities of Washington— To Levi Lincoln, pp. 17 : 18. Genealo- 
gy of Mr. Jefferson - Peculiarity by which it was marked — Prominency of the 
feature in Thomas. Anecdote related by Mr. Madison. Anliquily of his mater- 
nal nedigree. Character of his father — E.xtent of his jiatrimony. His early 
education — Critical position of his boy-hood — His juvenile mind and habits 
-^Fondness for the classics — For what qualities distinguished in College — 
Passion for certain Sciences and Fine \rts, pp. 18:20. Circumstances which 
decided the particular direction of his life. His character of Dr. Small — Of 
George VVyihe. Commences the study of Law — E.xlent of his researciies. 
His fervid desciiption of the speech of Patrick Henry against the Stamp-act — 
Influence of that scene upon his subsequent career. Mottoes of his Seals, pp. 
22 : 27. Enquiry into the relative birth of individual opinions on the question of 
American Indeoendence — Remark of Mr. Jefferson upon this point. Notice of 
liis claims to the distinction of giving dircclion and permanency to tlie moral 
power of the Revolution — His sarcastic compliment to Vlassacliusetts upon this 
point — The idea pursued in a letter to General Deaiborn. Enters the Practice 
of the Law — Professional celebrity. Qualifications us an Advocate — As a Pop- 
ular Orator. Letter to Major John Cartwright of England, disjjlaying l!ie depth 
and precision of his legal preparation — Interest excited on the publication of 
this letter — Answer to E. Everett upon the subject, pp. 27 : 33. 

CHAPTER n. 

Mr. Jefferson comes of age. Elected to the Legislature. His first effort in 
that body t"or the Emanci|)ation of Slaves — Overwhelminir defeat of the measure 
— Remarks on the singular merits of the proposition. Extract from his Notes 
on Virginia, on Slaver^'. Progress of the Revolution. System of Non-inter- 
course adopted by the Colonies — Agency of Mr. Jefferson in bringing Virginia 
into the meayure — Its utility as an engine of coercion. R,etaliatory resolutions 
of the British Parliament. Counter resolutions brought forward by Mr. Jeffer- 
son. Germ of the American Union. Sudden dissolution of the Legislature. 
Jefferson and others rally a private meeting of the members at the Raleigh 
tavern — Its spirited doings. Influence of the revolutionary proceedings in Vir- 
ginia, pp. 34: 40. Apathy of the Colonists — How viewed by Mr. Jefferson — 
He devises measures for arousing them to a sense of their situation. Meeting 
of the bolder spirits, to set the machinery in motion — Influence of this conclave 
upon the course of the Revolution. Committees of Correspondence established 
— Agency of this measure in begetting a General Congress — Strong present! • 
ment Df Mr. Jefferson of the result of their deliberations. Interesting debut of 
Mr. Carr in the Legislature — Mr. Jefferson's character of him. Legislature again 
dissolved, pp. 41 : 45. Parallel Committees of Correspondence appointed by 
the other Colonies — Moral agency of this institution in the Pievolution. News 
of the Boston Port Bill. Popular effervescence. Measures set in motion by Mr. 
Jefferson. Holds another council with his former confederates, Appointment of 
a general Fast in Virginia — .Mr. Jefferson's account of his draft of the proclama- 
tion — Effect of this measure throughout the Colonies. Legislature again dis- 
solved. Spirited Association entered into by the members. Recommendation 
of a General Congress, pp. 46 : 53. 

CHAPTER HI. 

The other Colonies unite in the measure of a General Congress. First demo- 
cratic Convention in Virginia. Mr. Jefferson elected a member. Instructions 
proposed by him for the <.;ongressional Delegates — Published by the Convention 
under the title of ' Summary View of the Rights of British America' — Effect of 
this work in England — Re published by the Whigs in Parliament— Bill of At- 
tainder commenced against the author— Political doctrmes of this v/ork form 
the text of the Revolution ; inserted at length remarks on the Political merits 
of the work. The Convention virtually assumes the government of the colony. 



12 CONTENTS. 

pp. 54:72. Second Virginia Convention. Mr. Jefferson loses all iiopo of a ic- 
conciliation with the mother country. Inequality of sentiment in the Conven- 
tion. Grounds taken by Mr. Jetf;rson. Rosoluiwn for puttin><- the Colony into 
a state of warlike defcnce--Its effect upon the older members —Reasons of their 
backwardness as stated by vir. Jeffjrson— Violent debates ensue —Conduct of 
the opposition on its passa'je. Mr. Jefferson elected a Delegate to Congress, 
He deterinmes on tiie pamful necessity of deciding the contest by the sword, 
pp. 72 : 78. Letter of Mr. J. to Dr. Small, in England. The regal Legislature 
of Virginia meets. Conciliatory Proposition of Lord North laid before them— 
Mr. Jefferson designated to prepare the answer-- Opposition lo his diaught--- 
Character of the document. Flight of the royal Governor. Effect of the pro- 
ceedings in Virginia upon the general cause. Fall of the monarchical power in 
that province. Extract from VVilkes' speech in the British Parliament, pp. 78 : 84- 

CHAPTER IV. 

Mr. Jefferson takes his seat in the Continental Coiigres.«;— His emotions--- 
Curiostiy of members on his appearance. Political influence of the decisions of 
that body. Mr. Jcffetson appointed on the committee to prepare a Declaration 
of the Causes of taking up arms -Character of the document. Curious remin- 
iscence related by Mr. Jefferson. Disparity of sentiment in Cunoress. Opinions 
of Mr. Jefferson. Extract from the VVar vlanifeslo, pp. 84:iiP,. Mr. Jefferson 
desio-nated to prepare an answer of Congress to Ijord North's Conciliatory Prop- 
osition---Tlie document. His letters to a gentleman in England. Re-elected 
to Cono-iess. His agency in the princi|)al movements in Virginia while in 
Concrress. His draught of a Preamble, Declaration of Rights, and Constitu- 
tion for that State. Reasons why they were not adopted entire. His opinion 
on the Constitution as adopted, and on popular government in general, at this 
epoch, pp. 89 : 100. Virgmia instructs her Delegates in Congre.'ss to declare In- 
dependence- -Causes of the rapid proclivity of the public mind to the same sen- 
timent. Preparatory steps of Congress lor declaring Independence. Mr. Jef- 
ferson appointed to prepare an animaled Address. Introductory motion of In- 
dependence — Poweiful resistance to the measure — Heads of debate on the mo- 
tion. Committee appointed to prepare a Declaration of Independence — Mr. Jef- 
ferson designated lo make the draught— His report, pp. 100: 107. Debates re- 
newed on the preliminary motion. Vehement opposition to the Declaration--- 
Parts striken out. The original instrument, with the alterations. Reception of 
the Declaration by the people— Its immediate -aXiA ulterior influences in the 
world— Review of its merits. E.vtracts from Ib.e writings of Mr. Jefferson. 
Comparative merits of the leaders of the physical and the moral power of the 
Revolution. Remarks on the attempt to detract from the merits of the Decla- 
ration-— Letter of the Author to Mr. Madison, pp. 107 : 128. Mr. Jefferson re- 
elected to Congress— -Reasons for declining-- Retirement. Appointed Commis- 
sioner lo France-- Letter to Congress declining. Extract from his private me- 
moranda, pp. 128: 132. 

CHAPTER V. 

Mr. Jefferson resumes his Seat in the Virginia Legislature— -Commences the 
work of repuhlicanizing the government. His bill for establishing a Judiciary 
System— For abolishino- the Law of Enta'ls. Aristocratic peculiarities in the 
social state of Virginia— Contrary bi-asg«s of Mr. Jefferson. His eulogium upon 
agriculturalists. View of his objects m repealing the law of Entails. Opposi- 
tion of the landed aristocracy. Preamble to the act, pp. 133: 137. His attack 
upon the hierarchy. History of the Church establishment in Virginia. Resis- 
tance of the privileged order. Final success of his efforts — Glories of this 
achievement. He introduces a bill for abolishing the Slave trade — For establish- 
ing a new Seat of government, pp. 138 : 144. He introduces a resolution for Re- 
vising the Legal Code of Virginia— Appointed, with others, to execute the work. 
Project for a Dictator — P^esistance of Mr. Jefferson— His powerful development 
of this atrocious measure, pp. 145 : 148. Meeting of the Revisers of the Laws- 
Plan of the work--Differcnce of opinion— Distribution of the labor— -General 
propositions of Mr. Jeffurson— Opinion of Mr. Pendleton. Letter of Mr. J. to 
Dr. Franklin. Passage of his bill for abolishing the Slave trallick--Historical 
comparison of this achievement with that of the European nations — Merit of 
priority-"Order in which the example of Virginia was followed by the other 



CONTENTS. 13 

States. Committee of Re visors complete their task — General rule observed by 
Mr. Jefferson in relation to style, pp. 148 : 155. 

CHAPTER VI. 

Revisors report to the Legislature — Opinion of Mr. Madison on the Revised 
Code— -Principal innovations by Mr. .T.— llis bill for abrnirating the right of 
Primogeniiare— -Opposition of the aristocracy. His bill for establishing the 
doctrine of E-/Cnatriation. Extract from Gjrardin's History. Mr. Jefferson's 
bill for the cstabhsjimont of Religious Freedom -Men :.s of the peiTormance- — 
Inserted at length-— Powerful influence of tliis act. Extracts from iiis Corres- 
pondence, pp. 155 : 162. His bill for the Em;uicipatio • of Slaves-- Effect of its 
rejection upon him— Extracts from his writmgs. His Criminal Code— -Extent of 
its innovations on the prevailing system— Rejected by the Legislature— Amend- 
ments proposed by him— Passed— -Preamble to the act. His Bill for the Gen- 
eral Diffusion of iCnowle-Jge— Outlines of the proposed system-- Fate of the 
Bill in the Lcg-islature. Extract from Notes on Virginia. Pieamble to tl'.e Ed- 
ucation Bill— -Value set by the author upon his system. Extract from his Cor- 
respondence. Remarks on the general merits of the Revised Code. His char- 
acter of George Mason— of James .Madison— of Edmund Pendleton, pp. 162: 17o. 
Removal of Burgoyne's troops to Charlottesville---Huicane attentions of Mr. 
Jefferson— -The Governor and Council meditate their reiiioval from the State-— ■ 
Remonstrance of Mr. Jefferson-— Gratitude of the soldiers for his generous in- 
terposition---His answers to some of the officers, pp. 178 : 18b. 

CHAPTER VIT. 

Mr. Jefferson elected Governor--- Vlagnanimity towards his competitor. He 
institutes retaliatory measures on Briiisli prisoners — Remonstrance of the British 
General---His reply— -Approbation of his conduct b)^ the Commander in Chief. 
Specimen of his early State-papers. Effect of his polit / upon tiie enemy --His 
appea,! to American captives, suffering under the first c:rocts of his policy. His 
measures for extending tiie western establishments of Vi ginia---Success. Vir- 
ginia cedes her unappropriated territory to the U. States— Effect of this measure, 
pp. 185 : 19&. Re-elected Governor. Distressing situaliiii of V rginia. Extra- 
ordinary pov/ers conferred on the Gover.ior. Invasion of the Stale under Gen. 
Leslie. Measures of defence. Honoraljle conduct of the enemy. Invasion un- 
der Arnold. Capture of the Metiopolis. Intrepidity of tin- Governor — Attempt 
to seize Arnold. Deplorable pituation of Virginia. Bril:3h re inforrement un- 
der Philips. Exposure of the Governor. Invasion of Virginia by Cornwallis. 
Governor's appeal to the Commander in chief for aid. Mr. Jefferson deehnes a 
re-election. Closing events of liis administration. Attempted impeachment of 
his character. Approbatory resolution of iho Legislature. Tarlton's attack on 
Monticello. Stf-y of Carter's Mountain. Narrow escape of Mr. Jefferson. His 
description of Co nwallis's invasion, pp. 196:208. Writes his Notes on Virginia. 
Outlines and general incnts of the work.— His" comparison of American gen- 
ius with that of Europe — Remarks on ihe Constitution of Virginia — on Slave- 
ry — on Free Inquiry in matters of religion. Ajipointed a Commissioner to ne- 
gotiate peace — Reasons for drclining. His pursuits in retirement. Description 
of him by a traveller. Again afipointed Commissioner — Acceptance — Reasons 
for not joining in the act of pacification, pp. 209 :223. 

CHAPTER VIII. 

Re-elected to Congress — Remarks on liis re-appearance. Washington's re- 
signation of the command of the army — Description of tlie ceremony. Appoint- 
ed chairman of tlie committee on the ratification of tiie treaty of Peace — De- 
bates. Contentious character of Congress described by him — Reconciling meas- 
ure, pp. 224: 229. Appointed to draught a system of Uniform Currency for 
the United States, and establish a Money Unit — Difference of views between 
him and the Financier— -Adoption of liis plan — Its merits. Magnitude of his 
Congressional duties. Appointed chairman of a committee to revise tht treas- 
ury Department, and report — of Finance, and report — lo draught a Plan of Gov- 
ernment tot the Western Territories, and report. On a committee of retrench- 
^<=^t — of locating and disposing tiie Western lands. Measur(;s taken by Con- 
gress loi investing the General Govcrnrntui ^yith exclusive power to regulate 



11 CONTENTS. 

Commerce— Report of the committee, pp. 229 : 232. He submits a proposition 
for appointing a ' Committee of the States,' to serve during the recesses of Con- 
gress — Subsequent failure of the sclieitie; humorous anecdote of Doctor Frank- 
lin. General Wasiiington consults him on the Cincinnati institution — Its origin 
— His opinions — Advice to Washington, who takes nieasuies to abolish the order. 
Appointed Minister Plenipotentiary, with Franklin and Adams, for negotiating 
treaties of commerce. To whom treaties were to be proposed, pp. 23;^: 239. 

CHAPTER IX. 

Accepts the appointment of Minister to flurope — Sails— Arrival in France, 
Curiosity excited in the Diplomatic corps at Paris, by the instructions given to 
our negotiators. Autliorship of these instructions- -His letter on the subject. 
Mr. Adams joins his colleagues at Paris. General form of treaty. Result of 
the conference with tlio French Minister. Final result of their propositions to 
the several Powers of Europe Dignified conduct of the American negotiators, 
pp. 240: 243. Appointed Resident Mir.ister at the Court of Vers.iilles — Recep- 
tion at that court. Visit to London — Reception at the Court of St. James. 
General view of his official duties at Pans. His tribute to La Fayette, and tlie 
Count do Vergennes. His project to engage the principal European Powers in 
a perpetual alliance with the U. States against the Piratical States--Letter to 
Mr. Adams — His proposals-— Their receijtion, and failure, pp. 243:250. His 
measures for securing tlie foreign credit of the United States---Visit to Holland. 
E.xtracts, giving his op'nions on the state of society, <S:c. in Europe. Insurrec- 
tions in America-- How viewed by him. Extracts from his letters to America. 
Movements in the U. S. for forming a Constitution— Agency of Mr. Jefferson. 
The National Convention meets — Diversity of opinion. His v ews consulted- 
Advice to the members— -Result of their labors -Reception by the States-— His 
opinions on the new Constitution---Letter to Mr. Madison---Advice on the man- 
ner of accep'ing it — Further extracts. His influence in producing the amend- 
ments, pp. 250 : 272. Proposed abandonmentof the navigation of tlie Mississippi 
—Effect upon Mi'. Jefferson, and letter to Mr. Madison. He introduces into the 
Southern states uplantl cotton and the olive tiee. Tour through France and 
Italy — Extracts. Communicates to America a variety of new inventions, and 
articles of culture. His scientific and literary efforts in France. Endeavors to 
improve the architecture of the U. States. Letter to Washington on the Cin- 
cinnati—Letters to the young men of America, pp. 272 : 287. Opening scenes of 
the French Revolution. Causes of this strugole, as stated by Mr. Jefferson— - 
His Letter, accompanied with a Cijarter of Piights-.-Consultation at his house, 
and its effocts---Apo]ogy— -Charac'icr of the Queen. Departure, and Farewell 
tribute to France. Ariival in Virginia. Receives ihe appointment of Secretary 
of State. His answers, and final acceptance. Arrival at the Seat of Govern- 
ment, pp 287 : 296. 

CHAPTER X. 

Political elements of Washington's cabinet. Character of Hamilton, Adams, 
and remarks on Knox, by Jefferson. His criticaL position, and observations. 
Hamilton's Funding System and Assumption scheme-— Contentions excited by 
these measures. Panic of Hamilton. Conciliatory intervention of Mr. Jefferson 
and final passage of the Assumption---Influpnce of these measuies. National 
Bank, and grounds of opposition. The President requires the written opinions 
of his Cabinet. Opinion of Jeflerson. Subsequent influence of the Bank, and 
extensive monied control of Hamilton. Ojjposition to the adniinistralioM and 
its causes, as stated by Jefferson, pp. 296:310, Extensive duties of the State 
Department. His Report on Coins, ic— Its outlines. Report on the Cod and 
Whale Fislieries ; its general features Report on Commerce and Navigation ; 
its political effects, pp. 310:322. His duties as to foreign affairs. Extracts 
from his instructions to our Minister in Spain, on the Navigation of the Missis- 
sippi, &c. His controversy with Mr. Hammond. In<^iructions to our Minister 
at London on Impressment. Critical situation of the U. States, as to their foreign 
relations. Popular feeling in favor of France. Intemperate character of the 
French Minister. Mr. Jefferson's controversy with him, and the merits of the 
performance--Character of Genet's communications ; his violent measures--Re- 
quest for hisiecall decided upon ; how performed by the Secretary. Exfc"'*' 
pp. 322 : 333. Mr. Jefferson's retiremeii* liom the Cabinet, and its cau""-" ■'■*""°'^^^ 



CONTENTS. 15 

of Washington to prevent it; interesting Conversations between them. Ex- 
tracts from his Correspondence, pp. 333 : 342. 

CHAPTER XL 

Character of the struggle between the federalists and republicans. Third Con- 
gress meets ; Mr. JefFei son's report on Commerce taken up. Further view of 
his Opinions on Commerce, and Extracts from his writings. Charge against him 
of partiality to France and hostility to England examined. Discriminating com- 
mercial resolutions of Mr. Madison ; party cffo.Ms to defeat them. Exasperation 
of parties. Nomination of a Minister Exiraordinary to the British Court ; its 
effect on the republican party. Character of the Jay treaty, pp. 342 : 348. View 
of Mr. Jefferson in retirement, &c.— Extracts from liis works. Appointed Presi- 
ident of the Amer. Philo. Society ; his answer. His sensations on learning late 
proceedings in Congress---Extracts from his writings on the political affairs 
of the U. States, pp. 340 : 358. Explanation of his celebrated letter to Mazzei. 
His rule regarding newspapers ; letter to General Washington. Question of 
a successor to Washington agitated—Letter of Mr. Jefferson declining being 
considered a candidate---<.Jharacter of the contest. Election of Adamd---Mag- 
nanimity of Jefferson towards him, and iiis endeavors to restore harmony— Let- 
ter to Madison. Selections from his Correspondence, displaying certain points 
of character, pp. 358 :367. 

CHAPTER Xn. 

Political cliaracter of Adams' cabinet. Jefferson's arrival as Vice President, 
and precaution to elude ceremony. Determination regarding executive consul- 
tations. Separation between him and the President. His portraiture of the 
administration. Catalogue of its most obnoxious measures. Opposition of the 
Republican party ; its dependence on Jefferson. Extracts from his works, 
pp. 368 : 384. Desperate situation of affairs in '98. ..99. His advice on the best 
course of measures. Republican members of Congress letire into the State 
legislatures. Jefferson draughts the Kentucky Resolutions. Their general char- 
acter. Extract. Madison's Virginia Resolutions. View of Jefferson's official 
conduct.. .Prepares his Manual of Parliamentary Practice. Parties bring out 
their candidates for the Presidency. Character of the contest. Licentiousness 
of the Pulpit and the Press against Jefferson. Notice of some of the principal 
libels on his character ; his singular passiveness. Extracts from his works, 
pp. 384: 391. Result of the election by the people. Constitutional difficulty ; 
the federalists taking advantage of it resolve to elect Burr. Election scenes 
in the House, and conduct of the minority. Fidelity of the republicans to, and 
final election of Jefferson. Attempts of the federalists to extort capitulary terms 
from him ; his answers. Causes of tiieir final abandonment of the contest, as, 
stated by hirij. Feelings of jthe nation, pending the election in the House, and 
subsequently. Last scenes and appointments of the defeated dynasty. Extracts 
from his correspondence at this memorable epoch, pp. 391 :403. 

CHAPTER Xni. 

Inauguration of Jefferson. Description of the ceremony. Inaugural addrese. 
Formation of the Cabinet, and rules of communication. Removal of officers, 
and rules of action. Outcry of the opposition. President's reply to New 
Haven remonstrance. Reformation of other abuses. Private rescript of re- 
form meditated by him. Abolition of levees. Anecdote of Washington. Rule 
of receiving company. Moral effect of the new order of things, pp. 403:414. 
Principle of reform. Reduction of the army and navy ; abolition of superflu- 
ous offices, &c. Measures of the President relating to the international code of 
mankind. Chastisement of the Mediterranean pirates. His first annual mes- 
sage. Propositions of reform. Congratulatory addresses of the people, and his 
answers. Effect of the proposition to abolish internal taxes, and his private ex- 
planation, pp. 414:424. Reduction of the public debt. Extent of reformations 
during the first Session. System of finance adopted by the President. Measures 
adopted by him for the Purchase of Louisiana. Extracts from his works. 
Ratification of the treaty ; merits of this achievement, pp. 424 : 436. Policy 
of the Executive towards the Indians; its beneficial effects. Extent of native 
title extinguished by him. His policy towards foreign nations. His views on 
commerce, treaties and alliances. Rejection of the treaty negotiated with Great 



16 CONTENTS. 

Britain, and how viewed. His justification, in a letter to a fnend. Opinions of 
the President on the Navy ; letter of John Adams to him, and reply. Insti- 
tution of Gun Boats; outlines of the system, and historical instances of 
its efficacy, pp. 436:450. Character of the opposition to the administration. 
Letter of the President to Jiidu;o Sullivan on the licentiousness of the press. 
Disunion machinations of the monarchical federalists. Extracts froin his private 
coirespondence. Jefferson's anxiety to decline a re-election ; reasons for his 
submitting to another trial. Character of the second contest ; unanimity of 
the result, pp. 450 : 455. Second inaugural address. His censure upon the fa- 
natical intruders among' the Indians. His views on the most eligible arrange- 
ment of the Tariff after the discharge of the public debt, and on the distribution 
of the surplus revenue. Conspiracy of ]5urr ; his designs, and trial. Immovable 
tenure of the Judiciary. Correspondence of Jefferson on the subject, his subse- 
quent opinions, and proposed reinedy, pp. 455 : 464. Foreign rclaiions of the U. 
States. Embargo ; historical review of its causes. Eorlin and Milan decrees. 
Impressment of American seamen. Outrage on the Chesapeake. Popular in- 
iignation. Moderation of the President; approved by the federalisls. Trea- 
-onable opposition to the embargo. Plot of John Henry. Disclosures of 
.t. Q. Adams. Causes of opposition to, and utility of the Embargo, pp. 464 : 473. 
Policy of the President on the Freedom of Speech, and the Press -Anecdote. 
He discliarges those suffering under the Sedition law. Refuses to permit pros- 
ecutions for libels against himself. Dismissal of certain prosecutions in Conn. 
His policy on Freedom of Relioion. Letter to n clergyman. Ridiculous elec- 
tioneering prophecies of his infidel intentions. His personal religious observan- 
ces. Review of the minor traits of his administration. Examples of his simpli- 
city, and disinterestedness, pp 473:483. Private labors fee. of the President. 
His syllabus of the doctrines of Christianity. Correspondence with literary men, 
and different societies in Europe. Efforts for the introduction of Vaccination. 
Correspondence with the Emperor Alexander. His labors on colonization Im- 
provements bestowed on the city of Washington. Oracular authority of his ad- 
ministrative policy. Anecdote of Bonaparte. Urgency of the people for his 
second re-election; his anxiety for retirement. Extracts from his letters. Re- 
tires to private life. Gratulations of the people. His reply to the citizens of 
Washington. Proceedings of his native county. He declines all ceremony. 
Address of the citizens of his native county.... His aflfecting reply. Farewell 
address of the Virginia Legislature. Remarks on the termination of his polit- 
ical career, pp. 483 : 496. 

CHAPTER XIV. 

Remarks on the nature of his retirement. His principal objects of employ- 
ment. Selections from his Correspondence, showing his opinions on the Relative 
Powers of the General and State governments. ..On the Relative Powers of the 
three branches of the General government. ..On the Tendencies to Consolidation 
and mode of resistance. ..On Internal Improvement, constructive powers, &c... 
On Domestic Manufactures. ..On the Laboring classes. Agriculture ..On the Na- 
tional Bank.. .On Political Parties. His character of the Sovereigns of Europe. 
His portraiture of General Washington. His opinions of Progressive Improve- 
ment and Popular Rights. ...On the Missouri Question. ..On the Being of a God... 
On Religion. Loss of Friends. His advice on the Studies of young men... .On 
Rules for the regulation of their moral conduct. His Physical Habits, pp. 
49'i : 520. His system of employment in retirement. Description of Monticello. 
Portraiture of Mr. Jefferson, by a guest. Number of letters received by him. 
Treachery of correspondents. His efforts to revive ancient affections between 
Mr. Adams and himself; reminiscence of his great regard for him. Cor- 
respondence with Mrs. Adams. Engages the mediation of Dr. Rush. Receives 
a friendly opening from Mr. Adams, Letter to Dr. Rush. Subsequent corres» 
pondence between himself and Adams. Extracts, pp. 520:536. University of 
Virginia— -His agency, and leading object in its establishment. Distinguish- 
ing features of his public life and private character. Distressing state of his 
finances---Letter to his grandson— Last letter to Madison. Lottery granted him. 
Private liberality of the nation. Alarming state of his health. Letter to the 
Mayor of Washington. Particulars of his last hours. Extraordinary circum- 
stances of his death. Epitaph by himself. 



LIFE, 



OF 



THOMAS JEFFERSOIV. 



CHAPTER I. 

Thomas Jefferson was bom April 2d, 1743, on the farm 
ccilled Shadwell, adjo^^ing; Monticello, in the comity of Albemarle, 
Virginia. The dat^^^f his nativity was unknown until his decease. 
It had been a si'^j^ct of speculation and eager scrutiny among 
the votaries of iberty, for a long series of years, with a view to its 
special comrx^^J^o^'^tion. Repeated attempts had been made to as- 
certain it. "^y formal applications to him personally, on various oc- 
casions t)y individuals, and public bodies ; but from scruples of a 
patri<^ic nature, he always dechned revealing it, and enjoined the 
sa)rte privacy upon his family. The principles which determiued 
bim on this subject, were, the great indeUcacy and impropriety in pei- 
niinng himself to be made the recipient of an homage, so incom- 
j>atible with the stanch dignity and independence of the republican 
character; the still greater repugnance which he should feel, to 
seeing the birth-day honors of the Republic transferred, in any d(>- 
gree, to any individual ; and the paramount importance over all, 
of suppressing, at the first blush, every tendency to familiarize the 
moral sense of freemen to thfe artificial forms and ceremonies ol" 
royalty. He thought he discovered in the birth-day celebrations of 
particular persons, a germ of aristocratical distinction, which it was 
incumbent upon all such persons, by a timely concert of example, 
to crush in the bud. Soon after his inauguration in 1801, he was 
waited on by the Mayor and Corporation of the city of Washing- 
Ion, with the request that he v,^ould communicate the anniversary 
of his birth, as they were desirous of commemorating an event 

3 



18 LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

which had conferred such distinguished excellence upon their coun- 
try. He replied, in a style of Roman heroism, " The only birth- 
day which I recognize, is that of my country's liberties." In Au- 
gust, 1803, he received a similar communication from Levi Lincoln, 
in behalf of a certain association in Boston, to which he replied : 
" Disapproving mysel? of transferring the honors and veneration 
for the great birth-day oi our Repuljlic, to any individual, or of di- 
viding them with individuals, I have declined letting my own birth- 
day be known, and have '^.ngaged my family not to communicate it. 
This has been the uniform answer to every application of the kind.'' 
On the paternal side, Mr. Jefferson could number no titles to 
high or ancient lineage. His ai^,estors, however, as far back as 
they can be traced, were of solid refejectability, and among the first 
settlers of Virginia. They emigrated to this country from Wales, 
and from near the mountain of Snowion, the highest in Great- 
Britain. His grand-father was the first of v]^on\ we have any par- 
ticular information. He lived in Chesterfien county, at the place 
called Ozborne's, and ovimed the lands, afterwa^g ([^q glebe of the 
parish. He had three sons ; Thomas, who diti young ; Field, 
who resided on the waters of the Roanoke, and lei numerous de- 
r4cendants ; and Peter, the father of the subject of tk^e Memoirs, 
who settled in Albemarle county, on the lands called '^hadwell. 
He was the third or fourth settler in that region of the country. 
They were all gentlemen of property and influence in the Coi-any. 
But the chief glory of Mr. Jefferson's genealogy was the stui^ly 
contempt of hereditary honors and distinctions, with which thc- 
whole race was imbued. At a period when birth was the principal cir- 
cumstance which decided rank, such a raciness and unsophisticated 
tone of character, in an influential family, whose wealth alone was suf- 
ficient to identify them with the aristocracy, could not but be regard- 
ed as a novel and decisive peculiarity. It was a strong genealogical 
feature, pervadmg all the branches of the primitive stock, and form- 
ing a remarkable head and concentration in the individual who was 
destined to confer immortality upon the name. With him, indeed, 
if there was any one sentiment which predominated in early life, 
and which lost none of its rightful ascendency through a long ca- 
reer of enlightened and philanthropic effort, it was that of the nat- 
ural equality of all men, in their rights and wants ; and of the noth- 
ingness of those pretensions which 'are gained without merit and 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 19 

forfeited without crime.' The boldness with which, on his first 
entrance into manhood, he attacked and overthrew the deep rooted 
institutions of Primogeniture and Entails, the parent sources of those 
artificial inequalities in society which have caused so much misery 
and oppression in the world, is an indestructible commentary upon 
this attribute of his character. An anecdote is related by Mr. Mad- 
ison, which is no less apposite and striking. During the infant 
stages of our separate sovreignty, the wheels of the republican ma- 
chine moving rather tardily and awkward, forms of government 
were the uppermost topics every where, more especially at the con- 
vivial board. On one of these occasions, at which Mr. Jefferson 
was present, the question being started as to the best mode of pro- 
viding the executive chief, it was, among other opinions, gravely ad- 
vanced that a hereditary designation was preferable to any elective 
process that could be devised. At the close of an eloquent effiision 
against the agitations and animosities of a popular choice, and in 
favor of birth, as on the whole affording a better chance for a suit- 
able head of the government, Mr. Jefferson, with a smile, remark- 
ed, that he had heard of a University somewhere in which the_ 
Professorship of Mathematics tvas hereditary ! The reply, re 
ceived with acclamation, was a coup de grace to the anti-republi- 
can orator. 

His father, Peter Jefferson, was born February 29th, 1707-8; and 
intermarried in 1739, with Jane Randolph, of the age of 19, 
daughter of Isham Randolph, one of the seven sons of that 
name and family, settled at Dungeoness, in Goochland county, 
who trace their pedigree far back in England and Scotland ; " to 
which" says Mr. Jefferson, " let every one ascribe the faith and 
merit he chooses." He was a self-educated man ; but endowed by 
nature, with strong intellectual powers, and a constant thirst for in- 
formation, he rose steadily by his own exertions, and acquired con 
siderable distinction in the Colony. He was commissioned, jointly 
with Joshua Fry, professor of mathematics in William and Mary 
College, to designate the boundary line between Virginia and North- 
Carolina ; and was afterwards employed, with the same gentleman, 
to construct the first regular map of Virginia. He died August 17, 
1757 leavino" a widow, with six daughters, and two sons, of whoni 
Thomas was the elder. To both the sons he left large estates ; to 
Thomas the Shadwell lands, where he was born, and which inclu- 



20 LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

Jed Monticello ; to his brother the estate on James river, called 
Snowden, after the reputed jjirth-place of the family. The mother 
of Mr. Jefferson survived to the fortunate year of 1776, the most 
memorable epoch, ahke in the annals of her country, and the life 
of her son. 

At the age of five, Thomas was placed by his father at the 
English school, where he continued four years ; at the expiration of 
which, he was transferred to the Latin, where he remained five years, 
under the tviition of Mr. Douglass, a clergyman from Scotland. 
With the rudiments of the Latin and Greek languages, he acquired, 
at the same time, a knowledge of the French. At this period his 
father died, leaving him an orphan, only fourteen years of age, and 
without a relative or friend competent to direct or advise him. 

An interesting reminiscence of this critical period of his boyhootl, 
and of the simple moral process by which he subdued, and wrought 
into instruments of the greatest good, the perilous circumstances of 
his position, is contained in an affectionate letter, written more than 
fifty .years afterwards, to his grandson, in Philadelphia. It is re- 
plete with sound admonition, applicable to every condition of youth, 
besides affording a choice insight into the juvenile mind and habits 
of the writer. His tastes were not so etherial, it appears, as to ex- 
clude him altogether from the wild and boisterous joys of the chase, 
and the turf ; but the basis of his moral composition must havt- 
been strongly intellectual, to have reasoned with such precocity of 
judgment "in the enthusiastic moment of the death of a fox ;" and 
to have caught the first impulses of a future ambition so chastened 
and elevated, amidst the engrossing transports of " the victory of 
a favorite horse." 

" Your situation, thrown at such a distance from us and alone, 
cannot but give us all great anxieties for you. As much has been 
secured for you, by yom- particular position and the acquaintance to 
which you have been recommended, as could be done towards shield- 
ing you from the dangers which surround you. But thrown on a 
wide world, among entire strangers, without a friend or guardian to 
advise, so young, too, and with so little experience of mankind, 
your dangers are great, and still your safety must rest on yourself. 
A determination never to do what "is wrong, prudence, and good 
humour, will go far towards securing to you the estimation of the 
world. When I recollect that at fourteen years of age, the whole 
care and direction of myself was thrown on myself entirely, without 
a relation or friend qualified to advise or guide me, and recollect tlie 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 21 

various sorts of bad company with which I associated from time to 
time, I am astonished I did not turn off with some of them, and 
become as worthless to society as they w^ere. I had the good for- 
tune to become acquainted very early with some characters of very 
high standing, and to feel the incessant wish that I could ever be- 
come what they were. Under temptations and difficulties, I would 
ask myself what would Dr. Small, Mr. Wythe, Peyton Randolph, 
do in this situation ? What course in it will ensure me their appro- 
bation 7 I am certain that this mode of deciding on my conduct, 
tended more to its correctness than any reasoning powers I posses- 
sed. Knowing the even and dignified line they pursued, I could 
never doubt for a moment which of two courses would be in char- 
acter for them. Whereas, seeking the same object through a pro- 
cess of moral reasoning, and with the jaundiced eye of youth, 1 
should often have erred. From the circumstances of my position, I 
was often thrown into the society of horse-racers, card-players, fox- 
hunters, scientific and professional men, and of dignified men ; and 
many a time have I asked myself, in the enthusiastic moment of 
tlie death of a fox, ^he victory of a favorite horse, the issue of a. 
fjuestion eloquentlv argued at the bar, or in the great council of the 
nation, well, wb^ch of these kinds of reputation should I prefer ? 
That of a hors^-jockey ? a fox-hunter ? an orator '? or the honest ad- 
vocate of my country's rights? Be assured, my dear Jefferson, 
tliat these Mtle returns into ourselves, this self-catechising habit, 
is not trifling, nor useless, but leads to the prudent selection and 
steady pursuit of what is right." 

On the death of his father, Mr. Jefferson was placed under the 
instruction of the Rev. Mr. Maury, father of the late Consul at 
Liverpool, with a view to complete the necessary classical prepar- 
ation for college. The charms of ancient learning seized with a 
quick and powerful fascination upon his heart ; they were remarka- 
bly congenial to his contemplative spirit, and touched the finest and 
the sweetest susceptibilities of his nature. They were here unfold- 
ed to him in all their richness and profusion ; and how deeply he 
drank at the inspiring fountain, may be inferred from those exhaust- 
less streams of classic elegance which afterwards flowed from his 
pen, and those bright flashes of oriental imagery with which his 
lighter writings abound. With Mr. Maury he continued two years ; 
and then, (1760,) at the age of seventeen, he entered the college of 
William and Mary, at which he was graduated, two years after, 
with the highest honors of the institution. 

While in college he was more remarked for solidity than spright- 
liness of intellect. His faculties were so even and well balanced, 

3* 



22 LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

that no particular endowment appeared pre-eminent. His course 
was not marked by any of those eccentricities which often presage 
the rise of extraordmary genius ; but by that constancy of pursuit, 
tliat inflexibility of purpose, that bold spirit of inquiry, and thirst 
for knowledge, which are the surer prognostics of future greatness. 
His habits were those of patience and severe application, which, 
aided by a quick and vigorous apprehension, a talent of close and 
logical combination, and a retentive memory, laid the foundation 
sufficiently broad and strong for those extensive acquisitions which 
he subsequently made. Matliematics was his favorite study, and 
in that science he particularly excelled ; he nevertheless distinguish- 
ed himself in all the branches of education embraced in the estab- 
lished course of his Alma Mater. To his devotion to Philosophy and 
Science, he united an exquisite taste for the Fine Arts. In those of 
Architecture, Painting, and Sculpture, he made himself such an adept 
as to be afterwards accounted one of the best critics of the age. For 
Music he had an uncommon passion; and his hours of relaxation 
were passed in exercising his skill upon the Vidin, for which he 
evinced an early and extravagant predilection. Kjs fondness for 
the Ancient Classics strengthened continually with hk strength, in- 
somuch that it is said he scarcely passed a day, in all after life, with- 
out reading a portion of them. The same remark is applicable, in 
a more emphatic sense, to his passion for the Matliematics. He be- 
came so well acquainted with both the great languages of antiqui- 
tv as to read them with ease ; and so far perfected himself in the 
French as to become familiar with it, which was of essential service 
to him on entering the diplomatic field, subsequently assigned to 
liiui. He could also read and speak the Italian language, and had 
a competent knowledge of the Spanish. Such too, was his early 
propensity of prying to the bottom of every thing, that he niade 
himself master of the Anglo-Saxon, as a root of the English, ai^d 
'• an element in legal Philology." 

But it was the acquaintances which he had the good fortune to 
form, while in college, which probably determined the particular 
cast and direction of his ambition. These were the first charac- 
ters in the society of Williamsburg, and in the whole Province ; 
among whom he has placed on record, the names of three individ- 
uals who were particularly instrumental in fixing his future des- 
tinies, distinguishing each according to his appropriate merit in the 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 2S 

work: viz. Dr. Small, one of the professors in college, 'who mado 
him his daily companion ; Gov. Fauquier, ' the ablest man who had 
ever filled that office, to whose acquaintance and familiar table,' he 
was admitted ; and George Wythe, ' his faithful and beloved Men- 
tor in youth, and his most afiectionate friend through Ufe,' Of the 
kindness and beneficial services of these gentlemen, we find him. 
at the age of seventy-seven, retaining the most grateful recollections- 
and improving his last moments, as it were, in dedicating a farewell 
tribute of filial veneration to the memory of each. 

" It was" says he "my great good fortune, and what probably fixed 
the destines of my Ufe, that Dr. Wm. Small, of Scotland, was then 
professor of mathematics, a man profound in most of the useful 
branches of science, with a happy talent of communication, correct 
and gentlemanly manners, and an enlarged and liberal mind. He 
most happily for me, became soon attached to me, and made me his 
daily companion when not engaged in the school ; and from hi.s 
conversation I got my first views of the expansion of science, and 
of the system of things in which we are placed. Fortunately, the 
philosophical chair became vacant soon after my arrival at college, 
and he was appointed to fill it per interim ; and he was the first 
who ever gave, in that college, regular lectures in Ethics, Rhetoric^ 
and Belles Lettres." 

To Governor Fauquier, with whom he was in habits of intimacy. 
is also ascribed a high character. With the exception of an extrava- 
gant passion for gaming, he was every thing that could have been 
wished for l^y Virginia, under the royal government. Generous, lib- 
eral, elegant in his manners and accompUshments,his example left an 
impression of refinement and erudition on the colony, which eminent- 
ly contributed to advance its reputation in the Arts. " With him'' 
continues Mr. Jefferson, "and at his table. Dr. Small and Mr, Wythe, 
his amici onmimn horarum, and myself, formed a partie quarree, 
and to the habitual conversations on these occasions, I owed much 
instruction." 

George Wythe, whose name will occur frequently in these 
Sketches, was emphatically a second father to the young and 
aspiring Jefferson. He was born about the year 1 727, of respectxi- 
ble parentage, on the shores of the Chesapeake. His education had 
been neglected by his parents ; and himself had led an idle and 
voluptuous life until the age of thirty ; but by an extraordinary 
eflfort of self-recovery, at that point of time, he overcame both 
the want and the waste of early advantages, msomuch as to be- 



24 LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

come the best Latin and Greek scholar in the State. He was one 
of the foremost of the Virginia patriots during the stormy season of 
the Revohition ; and siiccessivel)^ one of the highest legal, legisla- 
tive, and judicial characters which that State has furnished. He 
was early elected to the House of Delegates, then called the House 
of Burgesses, and continued in it until transferred to Congress, in 
1775. He was one of the signers of the Declaration of Indepen- 
dence, of which he had, in debate, been an eminent supporter. 
The same year, he was appointed by the Legislature of Virginia, 
one of the celebrated committee to Revise the Laws of the State. 
In 1777, he was chosen Speaker of the House of Delegates; and 
the same year was appointed Chancellor of the State, an office 
which he held until his death, in 1806, a period of thirty years. 
Mr. Jefferson always spoke with enthusiasm of this friend of many 
years ; and declares it was the act of his life most gratifying to his 
heart, to contribute what he deemed but a compliment to his "just 
reputation." 

'• No man ever left behind liim a character more venerated than 
George Wythe. His virtue was of the purest tint ; his integrity in 
flexible, and his justice exact; of warm patriotism, and, devoted as 
he was to hberty, and the natural and equal rights of man, he might 
truly be called the Cato of his country, without the avarice of the 
Roman ; for a more disinterested person never lived. Temperance 
and legidarity in all his habits, gave him general good health, and 
his unaffected modesty and suavity of manners endeared hun to 
every one. He was of easy elocution, his language chaste, method- 
ical in the arrangement of his matter, learned and logical in the 
xise of it, and of great urbanity in debate ; not quick of apprehension, 
but, with a little time, profound in penetration, and sound in con- 
clusion. In his philosophy he was firm, and neither troubhng, nor 
perhaps trusting, any one with his religious creed, he left the world 
to the conclusion, that that religion must be good which could pro- 
duce a life of exemplary virtue. His stature was of the middle 
size, well formed and proportioned, and the features of his face were 
manly, comely, and engaging. Such was George Wythe, the hon- 
or of his own, and the model of future times." 

Immediately on leaving college, Mr. Jefferson engaged in the 
study of the Law, under the direction of Mr. Wythe. Here, it is 
said, fired by the example of his master, he performed the whole cir- 
cuit of the Civil and Common Law; exploring every topic with pre- 
cision, and fathoming every principle to the bottom. Here, also,- 
he is said to have acquired that unrivaled facility, neatness, and or- 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON, 25 

der in business, which gave him, in eflect, in every office that he 
filled, " the hundred hands of Briareus." With such a guide, in 
a school of such exalted and searching discipline as that of the 
Law, all the rudiments of intellectual greatness, could not fail of 
being stirred into action. Aided by the propitious circumstances of 
the times, they exhibited a rapid and portentous developementinthe 
man who was destined to humble the pride of hoary legitimacy, 
and prostrate its artificial scaffolding in the dust. The occasion 
was not long wanting, which was fitted to evoke the master passion 
of his nature in bold and prominent relief His faculties were just 
fledging into manhood ; they had begun to assume their distinctiN-e 
flight, and to indicate a novel and illimitable range. At this decisive 
moment an incident occurred, which riveted them to their meditated 
^sphere, and kindled the native ardour of his genius into a flame of 
fire. It was the celebrated speech of Patrick Henry, on the memo- 
rable resolutions of 176.5, against the Stamp- Act. Yotmg Jefferson 
was present and listened to the "bold, grand, and overwhelming 
eloquence" of the orator of natiu'e ; the eflect of which seems never 
to have lost its sorcery over his mind. More than fifty years after- 
wards, he reverts to it with all the vividness of the first impression. 
"He appeared to me," says he, "to speak as Homer Avrote." The 
resistance to the last resolution was "most bloody ;" liut the genius 
of Henry rose with the pressure of the occasion, and descended in 
"one incessant storm of lightning and thunder," upon his opponents. 
The effect was indeed tremendous ; it stitick even that veteran and 
dignified assembly aghast. The resolutions were moved by Henry, 
and seconded by Mr. Johnston, a memljer from the Northern Neck, 
They were resisted by the Avhole monarchical body of the House of 
Burgesses, as a matter of course ; and, besides, they were deemed so 
ill advised in point of time, as to rally in opposition to them all tlie 
old members, including such men as Peyton Randolph, Wythe, 
Pendleton, Nicholas, Bland, &c. honest patriots, whose influence in 
the House, had till then been unbroken. " But," says Jefferson, 
•' torrents of sublime eloquence from Henry, backed by the solid rea- 
soning of Johnston, prevailed. The last, however, and strongest 
resolution, was carried but by a single vote. The deliate on it wag 
most bloody. I was then but a student, and stood at the door of 
communication between the house and the lobby during the whole 
debate and vote ; and I well remember, that, after the numbers, on 



2(5 LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

the division were told and declared from the Chair, Peyton Ran- 
dolph, the Attorney-General, came out at the door where I was 
standing, and said, as he entered the lobby, 'by G-d, I would have 
given 500 guineas for a single vote : for one vote would have divid- 
ed the House, and Robinson was in the chair, who he knew 
would have negatived the resolution.' " It was in the midst of this 
magniiicent appeal, so electrifying to his impassioned auditor, that 
Henry is said to have exclaimed, in a voice of thunder, and with 
the look of a god, " Caesar had his Brutus — -Charles the First his 
Cromwell — and George the Third — ('Treason,' cried the Speaker — 
'treason, treason,' echoed from every part of the House. It was one 
of those trying moments which is decisive of character. Henry 
faultered not an instant ; but rising to a loftier attitude, and fixing 
on the Speaker an eye of the most determined fire, he finished his 
sentence with the firmest emphasis,) wifly^oro^^ % //ie?V example. 
If this be treason make the most of it."* " 1 well remember, says 
Jefferson, "the cry of treason, the pause of Henry at the name of 
George the Third, and the presence of mind with which he closed hin 
sentence, and baffled the vociferated charge." 

The grandeur of that scene, and the triumphant eclat of Henry, 
made the heart of young Jefferson ache for the propitious moment 
which should enrol him among the champions of persecuted human- 
ity. Then was realized that burning vision of his fancy, which, 
at the age of fourteen, amidst the crowning hilarities of the chase, 
had pointed his aspirations to the more solid and rational exultation 
which awaits "the honest advocate of his country's rights." The 
feeling which such an exhibition would naturally produce in minds 
of a common mould, would be temporary, partaking more of the 
nature of animal excitement, and passing off with the occasion 
which gave it birth. Not so with Jefferson ; the sensations which 
it excited in him were purely intellectual; it composed his reflective 
mind into a deep and settled reverie, which the lapse of half a cen- 
tury had not broken, and in which were elaborated the most mo- 
mentous theories affecting the freedom and happiness of man. 
Already his thoughtful spirit sighed over the wronged, the degraded 
condition of human nature, and panted for the vindication of its 
long lost rights and liberties. The tone and strength of the mastei- 

+ Wirt's Life of Patrick Henry, page 65. 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 27 

sentiment of his mind, at this early period, are clearly iudicated by 
those emphatic mottoes which he selected for his seals : " Ab eo lib- 
ertas, a quo spiritus,^^ and ^^ Resistance to tyrants is obedience to 
Gorf." These mottoes attracted great attention among his cotempo- 
raries, and were regarded as prophetic of his destiny. They are 
well remembered to this day, by the aged inhabitants of Virginia, 
and associated with the warmest recollections of him, whose pres- 
ence only is lost from among them. The seals themselves are pre- 
served, as sacred relics, by the family of Mr. Jefferson ; and accu- 
rate impressions of them in wax, have been obtained by his particu- 
lar friends, in various parts of the country, by whom they are cher- 
ished with religious regard. 

Various attempts have been made to ascertain the birth of opin 
ions on the subject of American Independence ; and to fix the pre- 
cise epoch, and the particular individual, when and with whom the 
stupendous conception originated. But the enquiry has been attend- 
ed with no success, except to multiply candidates for the distinction , 
and is, from the nature of the case, incapable of solution. It is evi- 
dent that the measure did not result from any deliberate and precon- 
certed design on the part of one, or any number of individuals ; but 
from a combination of progressive, adventitious causes, generated, 
for the most part, in the hot-bed of the British Parliament, and fos- 
tered and matured by its unyielding obstinacy. It was the slow and 
legitimate growth of political oppression, assisted, it is true, by the 
great advance of certain minds beyond the general step of the age. 
To use the happy phraseology of Mr. Jefferson, " it would be as 
difficult to say at what moment the Revolution began, and what in- 
cident set it in motion, as to fix the moment that the embryo becomes 
an animal, or the act which gives him a beginning." 

Whether James Otis " breathed into this nation the breath of life," 
in the capitol of Massachusetts, or Patrick Henry "gave the first 
impulse to the ball of the Revolution," in the House of Burgesses of 
Virginia, as has been alternately claimed, and reclaimed against, in 
a spirit of laudable and patriotic rivalry, by the two great States 
which have stood forth as the chief competitors for the honor ; or 
whether Independence "was born" in the breast of a Hancock, a 
John or Samuel Adams, or a Christopher Gadsden, are questions, 
which, though they furnish matter for curious and interesting specu- 
lation, \\all probably never be decided to the satisfaction of all the 



28 LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

parties. But it is certain that if the subject were examined with re- 
ference to its bearing upon a Jefferson, and a similar indulgence were 
allowed in hyperbolism, it might with equal propriety be advanced, 
tiiat in those pointed and eloquent inscriptions, which he selected in 
the fire of youth, as the mottoes of his seals, we discover the genn, 
not merely of emancipated America, but of revolutionary Europe, 
and of the general amelioration of associated man throughout the 
world. The Revolution itself was but an inchoate movement, Amer- 
ica alone considered ; a fGrtiori, it was but the first chapter in the 
history of the great moral and political regeneration which is ad- 
vancing over the earth, and to which it gave the primary impulse. 
The mere political disseverence of the Colonies from the mother 
country, was but the initiatory process in the grand and fundamen- 
tal metamorphosis through which they had to pass, in order to derive 
any essential advantages from the separation ; to Avit, the entire ab- 
rogation of the regal investiture, and the assumption of free, indepen- 
dent, self-government. And unless contemplated in the broad light 
of a contest of principle^ between the advocates of republican and 
those of kingly government, into which it finally resolved itself, it 
is of little importance to enquire what incident gave it birth, or who 
set it in motion. Stopping at the point at which many, who were 
the boldest at the outset, evidently wished it to stop, and with honest 
motives, the Revolution would have been nothing more, in effect, 
than transferring the government to other hands, without putting it 
into other forms ; and no change would have been wiought in the 
political condition of the world. It would have been merely a spir- 
ited and successful rebeUion, or rather a struggle for power, like that 
which long embroiled the royal races of Plantagenets, Tudors, 
and Stuarts, terminating, at best, in a limited modification of 
the old system, and most likely, in its entire adoption, substituting 
George or John the First, in the room of George the Third. Many a 
firm breasted champion of the Revolution, proved deficient in metal 
when brought to the bar of principle. The whig of the first crisis, 
was transformed into the tory of the second, in many cases, and vice 

versa. 

The solution of the problem, as it is usually stated, therefore, if 
practicable, would afford no certain criterion of the relative advance 
of the leading minds of that period. But the question becomes a 
rational one, and assimies a powerful interest, if presented in its 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 29 

proper aspect ; when and with whom originated those eternal 
rules of political reason and right, which crowned with glory and 
immortality the American Revolution, and made it one in substance 
as well as form? To whom belongs the honor of concei\Tng the 
sublune, creative idea of giving to those detached and chaotic 
fragments of empire, which formed the nucleus of the American na- 
tion, not only shape and organization, but a new projectile impulse, 
to revolve in an untried orbit, under the control of a new equilibrium 
of forces 7 Viewing the subject under these, its moral phases, it be- 
comes of some consequence to ascertain the origin and progress of 
individual opinions. Those of Mr. Jefferson, both as to date and 
character, will gradually, and in due time, unfold tiiemselves to the 
reader, in the course of the sequel. Meanwhile, it is difficult to af- 
firm whether Massachusetts, who has evinced an honorable degree 
of sensibility upon this topic, will feel most solaced or rebuked by the 
■following compliment paid her by Mr. Jefferson, a few years since, 
.in a letter to Samuel A. Wells. " We wiUingly cedeto her the laud 
of having been, although not exclusively, the cradle of sound prin- 
ciples; and if some of us believe she has deflected from them in her 
course, we retain full confidence in her ultimate return to them." 
Again, in a letter to General Dearborn, soon after the close of the 
last war, he apostrophizes her, in a tone of such winning and frater- 
nal suppUcation, and so much in unison with our position, that we 
cannot omit introducing it here. 

" Oh Massachusetts ! how have I lamented the degradation of 

your apostacy ! Massachusetts, with whom I went with pride in 

'76, whose vote was my vote on every public question, and whose 

principles were then the standard of whatever was fiee or fearless. 

But then she was under the counsels of the two Adamses ; Avhile 

Strong, her present leader, was promoting petitions for submission 

to British power and British usurpation. Wliile under her present 

counsels, she must be contented to be nothing ; as having a vote, 

indeed, to be counted, but not respected. But should the State, 

once more, buckle on her republican harness, we shall receive her 

again as a sister, and recollect her wanderings among the crimes 

only of the parricide party, which would have basely sold what 

their fathers so bravely won from the same enemy. Let us look 

forward, then, to the act of repentance, which, by dismissing her 

venal traitors, shall be the signal of return to the bosom, and to the 

principles of her brethren ; and, if her late humiliation can just 

give her modesty enough to suppose that her southern brethren 

Are somewhat on a par with her in wisdom, in information, in 

4 



30 LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

patriotism, in bravery, and even in honesty, although not in psahn- 
singing, she will more justly estimate her own relative momentum 
in the Union. With her ancient principles, she would really be 
great, if she did not think herself the whole. 1 should l)e pleased 
to hear that you go into her councils, and assist in bringing her back 
to those principles, and to a sober satisfaction with her proportionable 
share in the direction of our affairs." 

In 1767, Mr. JefTerson was inducted into the practice of the Law, 
at the bar of the General Court, under the auspices of his learned 
]3receptor and friend, Mr. Wythe. He brought with him into prac- 
tice, the whole body of ancient and modern jurisprudence, text and 
commentary, from its rudest monuments in Anglo-Saxon, to its latest 
depositories in polished vernacular, well systematized in his mind, 
and ready for use at a moments v/arning. A specimen of his fa- 
miliarity with the vast phalanx of legal authorities, from Prisot down 
to Lord Mansfield, will presently appear ; although it was originally 
intended as a confidential depositc in the bosom of his correspon- 
dent. But his professional career was brief, and unfavored with 
any occasion adequate to disclose the immensity of his technical 
preparation, or the extent of his abihties as an advocate. The out- 
lireak of the Revolution, which was followed by a general occlusion 
of the Courts of Justice, trod close upon his introduction to the bar ; 
and while it closed one important avenue to distinction, ushered him 
upon a Ijroader and more diversified theatre of action. 

During the short interval which he spent in his profession, he ac- 
quired considerable celebrity ; iDut his forensic reputation is so dis- 
propovtioned to his unusually versatile pre-eminence, as to have oc - 
casioned the general impression that he was deficient in the requi- 
site qualifications for a successful practitioner at the bar. That this 
was not the case, however, we have the authority of a gentleman,* 
whose opportunities of information, and well known political bias, 
are a guaranty of the literal accuracy of his statement. "Permit 
me," says he, "to correct an error which seems to have prevailed. 
It has been thought that Mr. Jefferson made no figure at the bar: 
l3Ut the case was far otherwise. There are still extant, in his own 
fair and neat hand, in the manner of his master, a number of argu- 
ments which were delivered by him at the bar upon some of the 
most intricate questions of the law ; which, if they shall ever see 

+ William Wirt. 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON, 31 

the liglit} will vindicate his claims to the first honors of the profes- 
sion." 

Again, we have the authority of the same gentleman upon anoth- 
er interesting point. It will be new to the reader to learn that Mr. 
Jefferson was any thing of a popular orator. "It is true," contin- 
ues the writer, " he was not distinguished in popular debate ; why 
he was not so, has often been matter of surprise to those who have 
seen his eloquence on paper, and heard it in conversation. He 
had all the attributes of the mind, and the heart, and the soul, which 
are essential to eloquence of the highest order. The only defect- 
was a imysical one : he wanted volume and compass of voice for a 
large deliberative assembly; and his voice, from the excess of his 
sensibility, instead of rising with his feelings and conceptions, sunk 
imder their pressure, and became gutteral and inarticulate. The 
consciousness of this infirmity repressed any attempt in a large 
body, in which he knew he must fail. But his voice was all suffi- 
cient for the purposes of judicial debate ; and there is no reason to 
dou])t, that if the services of his country had not called him away 
so soon from his profession, his fame, as a lawyer, would now have 
stood upon the same distmguished ground which he confessedly oc- 
cupies as a statesman, an author, and a scholar." 

The "arguments," above mentioned, have not yet seen the 
light ; but a curious fragment exists, in the form of a letter to the 
celebrated English whig. Major John Cartwright, which displays 
atone view, the wonderful copiousness of legal research, fertility and 
promptitude of reference, which he possessed, and brought down 
with him to the age of eighty-one. This long and learned letter 
embraces a wide range of historical details, and political informa- 
tion ; and partakes more of the character of a treatise on the British 
and American Constitutions, than of an epistolary communication. 
The part which we quote, contains the detection, through a long 
lahyrinth of legal authorities, of a fondamental heresy, which, at an 
early period, through a palpaUe mistranslation of two words, crept 
into the connnon law, and finally, by a series of cumulative adjudi- 
cations, became firmly embodied in the text, 

"I was glad to find in your l.ook a formal contradiction, at length, 
of the judiciary usurpation of legislative pov/ers ; for such the judg- 
es have usurped in their repeated decisions, that Christianity is a pa^t 
of the common law. The proof of the contrary, which you have 



32 LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

udduced, is iiicoiitioveitible ; to wit, that the common law existed 
while the Anglo-Saxons were yet Pagans, at a time when they had 
never yet heard the name of Christ pronounced, or knew that such a 
character had ever existed. But it may amuse you, to show when, 
and by what means, they stole this law in upon us. In a case of 
quare impedit in the Year-book, 34. H. 6. folio 38. (anno 1458,) a 
question was made, how far the ecclesiastical law was to be respect- 
ed in a common law court. And Prisot, Chief Justice, gives his 
opinion in these words. ' A tiel leis qu'ils de seint eglise out en mt 
cien scripture covient a nous a donner credence ; car ceo common 
ley sur quels touts manners leis sont fondes. Et auxy. Sir, nous 
sumus obliges de conustre lour ley de saint eghse : et semblable- 
ment ils sont obUges de conustre nostre ley. Et, Sir, si poit apperer 
or a nousque I'evesque ad fait come un ordinary fera en tiel cas. 
adong nous devons ceo adjuger bon, ou auterment nemy,' &c. See 
S. C. Fitzh. Abr. du. inip. 89. Bro. Abr. Q.\x. imp. 12. Finch in 
his first book, c. 3, is the first aflei"wards who quotes this case, and 
mistakes it thus. 'To such laws of the church as have warrant in 
Jioly scripture^ our law giveth credence.' And cites Prisot; mis- 
translating '■ancien scripture,^ into '■holy scripture,'' Whereas 
Prisot palpably says, 'to such laws as those of holy church have m- 
ancient icriting^ it is proper for us to give credence ;' to wit, to their 
ancient written laws. This was in 1613, a century and a half 
after the dictum of Prisot. Wingate, in 1658, erects this false trans- 
lation into a maxim of the common law, copying the words of 
Finch, but citing Prisot. Wing. Max. 3. and Sheppard, title, 'Reli- 
gion,' in 1675, copies the same mistranslation, qvioting the Y. Bi 
Finch and Wingate. Hale expresses it in these words ; 'Christian- 
ity is parcel of the laws of England.' 1 Ventr. 293, 3 Keb. 607. 
But he quotes no authority. By these echoings and re-echoings 
from one to another, it had become so established in 1728, that in 
the case of the King vs. Woolston, 2 Stra. 834, the court would not. 
suffer it to be debated, whether to write against Christianity was 
punishable in the temporal court at common law. Wood, therefore, 
409, ventures still to vary the phrase and say, that all blasphemy 
and profaneness are offences by the common law ; and cites 2 Stra. 
Then Blackstone, in 1763, IV. 59, repeats the words of Hale, that 
'Christianity is part of the laws of England,' citing Ventris and 
Strano-e. And finally. Lord Mansfield, with a little qualification, 
in Evans's case, in 1767, says, that ' the essential principles of rc: 
vealed rehgion are part of the common law.' Thus ingulphing 
Bible, Testament, and all into the common law, without citing any 
authority. And thus we find this chain of authorities hanging link 
by link, one upon another, and all ultimately on one and the same 
hook, and that a mistranslation of the words ' ancien scripture' 
used by Prisot. Finch quotes Prisot ; Wingate does the same. 
Sheppard quotes Prisot, Finch and Wingate. Hale cites nobody. 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON'. 33 

The court, in Woolston's case, cites Hale. Wood cites Woolston's 
case. Blackstone quotes Woolston's case and Hale. And Lord 
Mansfield, like Hale, ventures it on his own authority. Here I 
might defy the best read lawyer to produce another scrip of author- 
ity for this judiciary forgery ; and I might go on further to show, 
how some of the Anglo-Saxon priests interpolated in the text ot 
Alfred's laws, the ^Oth, 21st, 22nd, and 23rd chapters of Exodus, 
and the 15th of the Acts of the Apostles, from the 23d to the 29th 
verses. But this would lead my pen and your patience too far: 
What a conspiracy this, between Church and State." 

Major Cartwright was so captivated with the contents of this let- 
ter, that he could not resist the temptation to permit it to go to the 
press. Its appearance in the newspapers, excited some sensation, 
and occasioned, in part, a letter from Ed^vard Everett, requesting 
further information upon the subject. In reply, Mr. Jefferson, after 
alluding to the publication of his letter, under the circumstances of 
frankness and freedom in which it ^^'as written, as " an unfair prac- 
tice," says, it will " draw upon me the host of judges and divines. 
They may cavil, but cannot refute it. I fear not for the accuracy 
of any of my quotations. Tlie doctrine might be disproved by 
many other and different topics of reasoning ; ]>ut having satisfied 
myself of the origin of the forgery, and found how like a rolling 
snoAV-ball, it had guthered volume, I leave its fruther pursuit to those 
who need further proof" " A licence," continues he, "which should 
permit ^aticien scripture' to be translated ' holij scrijjture' annihi- 
lates at once all the evidence of language. With such a licence, 
we might reverse the sixth commandment into ' Thou shalt not 
omit murder.' It would be the more extraordinary in this case 
where the mis-translation was to effect the adoption of the Avhole 
code of the JcAvish and Christian laws in the text of our Statutes." 
And he adds, " do we allow to our Judges this lumping legisla- 
tion?" 



34 LIFE. WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 



V 



CHAPTER II. 

Mr. Jefferson came of age in 1764. He had scarcely arrived at 
his majority, when he was placed in the nomination of Justices for 
the county in which he lived ; and at the first election following, 
fx A i was chosen one of its Representatives to the Legislature. 
tAi '^M^ He took his seat in that body in May, ITGyand distinguished 
himself at once, by an effort of philanthropy, to which the steady 
Uberahzation of sixty years has not brought up the tone of public 
sentiment ; at least, so far as to reconcile the major will to the per- 
sonal sacrifices which it involves. The moral intrepidity that could 
prompt him, a new member, and one of the youngest in the House^ 
to rise from his seat, with the composure of a martyr, and propose, 
amidst a body of inexorable planters, a bill "fo?- the j)ermissiou. 
of the Emancipation of Slaves^''' gave an earnest of his future 
career, too unequivocal to be misunderstood. It was an act of self 
immolation, worthy the best model of Sparta, or Rome. He was 
himself a slave holder, and from the immense inheritance to which 
he had succeeded, probably one of the largest in the House. He 
knew too, that it was a measure of peculiar ocliuni^ running coun- 
ter to the strongest interests, and most intractable prejudices of the 
ruling population ; that it would draw upon him the keenest resent- 
ments of the wealthy and the great, who alone held the keys of 
honor and preferment at home, besides banishing forever, all hope 
of a favorable consideration with the government. In return for 
this array of sacrifices, he saw nothing await him but the satisfac- 
tion of an approving conscience, and the distant commendation of 
an impartial posterity. He could have no possible motive but the 
honor of his country, and the gi-atification of a warm and compre- 
hensive benevolence. 

The bare announcement of the proposition gave a shock to the 
aristocracy of the House, which aroused their inmost alarms. It 
touched their sensibilities at a most irritable point, and was rejected 
by a sudden and overwheliuing vote. Yet the courteous and concil- 
iatory account which Mr. Jefferson has left of the transaction, 
ascribe* the failure of the bill to the vicious and despotic influ- 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 3^^ 

ence of the government, which,, by its unceasing frown, overawed 
every attempt at reform, rather than to any moral depravation of 
the members themselves. They were not insensible to the amazingr 
merits of the proposition. "Our mmds" says he " were circumscrib- 
ed within narrow limits, by an habitual belief that it was our dutj" 
to be subordinate to the mother country in all matters of govern- 
ment, to direct all our labors in subservience to her interests, and 
even to observe a bigotted intolerance for all religions but hers. 
The difficulties with our Representatives were of haljit and despair, 
not of reflection and conviction. Experience soon proved that they 
could bring their minds to rights, on the first summons of their at- 
tention." But indeed, under the regal government, how Avas it pos- 
sible for any thing liberal to expect success. The C'rown had di- 
rectly or indirectly the appointment of all officers of any moment, 
even those, in part, of the ordinary Legislature. The King's Coun- 
cil, as it was called, which acted as an Upper House, held their 
places at the Royal wall, and cherished a most humble obedience to 
that will ; the Governor, too, who had a negative on the laws, held 
by the same tenure, and with still greater devotedness to it : and. 
last of all, the Royal negative, which formed the rear-guard to the 
whole, barred the final pass to every project of melioration. So 
wanton, indeed, was the exercise of this power in the hands of his 
Majesty, that for the most trifling reason, and sometimes for no con- 
ceivable reason at all, he refused his assent to laws of the most salu- 
tary tendency. Nay, the single interposition of an interested indi- 
vidual against a law, was scarcely ever known to fail of success, 
though in the opposite scale were placed the interests of a w^hole 
country. 

This was Mr. Jefferson's /r*/ measure of reform ; and although 
rendered abortive by the immature state of things, it was but the 
inception, as the reader will in due time perceive, of a long series 
of efforts, partly successful, partly not, in the same benevolent cause. 
It was the first public movement which he had the honor to origin- 
ate, and the one, in all probability, whose spirit and object were 
most congenial to his heart. Indeed, it was but the glimmering 
of that principle, which constituted the polar star of his whole des- 
tiny, and which afterwards burst with such astonishing magnifi- 
cence upon the world, in that immortal manifesto of his country, 
which proclaimed, that "all men are created equal, and endowed by 



36 LIFE, WniTINQS, AND OPINIONS 

their Creator with certain inaUenable rights," It was the prunary 
development of the workings of a mind which comprehendedj 
within the mantle of its benignity, every color and condition of hu- 
man existence ; and which saw, beyond the " rivers of blood" and 
"years of desolation" which intervened, that enchanting vision, which 
flashed upon his earliest musings, and kindled his expiring ener- 
gies, — the vision of emancipated man throughout the world. But a 
few years after his legislative debut in the cause of slavery, we find 
him dilating with enthusiasm upon the same subject, in flying "Notes" 
to M. de Marbois, of the Frencb legation, and recording that vehe- 
ment and appalling admonition which recent events have almost 
ripened into prophecy : 

" Can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have 
removed their only firm l^asis, a conviction in the minds of the 
})eople, that these liberties are of the gift of God ? That they 
are not to be violated but with his wrath ? Indeed, I tremble for 
my covmtry, when I reflect that God is just ; that his justice can- 
not sleep forever : that considering numljers, nature and natural 
means only, a revolution in the wheel of fortune, an exchange of 
situation is among possilale events : that it may become prob- 
able by supernatural interference ! The Almighty has no attri- 
bute which can take side with us in such a contest." 

But the business of ordinary legislation was drawing to a close 
in Virginia. The fatal collision between Great-Britain and her 
Colonies, had waxed to a crisis, which suspended the regular action 
of government, and summoned the attention of its functionaries to 
more imperious concerns. Patrick Henry, who was seven years 
older than Mr. Jefferson, and three or four ahead of him in public 
hfe, had hitherto been the master-spirit of the Revolution at the 
South, and, by his superior boldness, hadsustained its principal brunt. 
The time had now arrived, when he was to divide the burthen and 
the glory of the distinction, with one who was his junior only in 
years and eloquence, his equal in moral courage, but in every thing 
else his superior, at an immeasurable distance. The same session 
of the Legislature that first saw Mr. Jefferson a member, saw him 
first also in the little council of the brave. The same session also, 
(1769) witnessed the adoption of a new mode of resistance to Brit- 
ish tyranny, which he acted a conspicuous part in promoting ; to 
wit, the system of non-intercourse, by which the Colonies gradu- 
ally dissolved all commercial connection with the mother country- 



OF THOMAS JEFF^ESSOK. 



37 



Tlie opponents of the embargo, who have slept a good sound sleep, 
will now begin to bristle up, and say they have discovered, at last, 
the very germ of that diabolical principle. But here a difficulty 
presents itself, for the origin of the non-intercourse proceeding be- 
longs to Massachusetts, the focus of all disinclination to embargoes I 
The honor of it is hers; she having been pressed, from the pecu- 
liar circumstances of her local position, to take the precedence of the 
other Colonies in this important step. Is it possible, that the 
bruited restrictive system, which was so humiliating in a Jefferson 
and a Madison, and so heritical in 1 808-9, should owe its birth 
place to the 'cradle of sound principles,' or trace its pedigree upon 
the escutcheons of '76 ? It is no less remarkable than true. And 
the measure, equally honorable on both occasions, was attended 
with correspondent and glorious results to our common country. 
Experience has proved, that the most effectual mode of warfare 
with a nation, which excludes the principle of reciprocity from her 
code, and grasps at monopolizing the commerce of the world, is to 
withdraw peaceably from her intercourse, and, by a vigorous sys- 
tem of retaliation, to debar her from ours. This indeed has never 
failed to bring matters to a favorable issue, either by compelUng her 
to retire upon the high ground of the Law of Nations, or by exas- 
perating her, as in two memorable instances, to such a pitch of 
madness, as is decreed to be the certain precursor of self-destruction. 
But in whatever light the principle may have been viewed in 
later times, its application was eminently efficacious in producing 
the final appeal, in 1775. It touched, at the most sensitive and 
irascible point, the great feeling which neutralizes every other in a 
commercial State, to wit, tliat of interest. Happily, Mr. Jefferson 
became a member of the Legislature, soon after the adoption of the 
system in Massachusetts ; he foresaw its operation, if acted upon 
generally and in concert ; and immediately conceived the design of 
bringing Virginia up to a line with her northern sister. A concise 
view of the state of affairs at this period is important. 

The bold and unequivocal attitude into which Virginia had 
thrown herself by the opposition, which she headed in '65, against 
the Stamp Act, was imitated with infectious rapidity by all the 
other Colonies ; which raised the general tone of resentment to 
such a height, as made Great Britain herself quail before the tem- 
pest she had excited. The Stamp Act was repealed ; but its re- 



38 LIFE, WRITING,?, AND OPINIONS 

l^eal was soon followed by a series of parliamentary and executive 
acts, equally unconstitutional and oppressive. Among these, were 
the Declaratory Act of a right in the British Parliament, to tax the 
Colonies in all cases whatsoever ; the quartering of large bodies of 
British soldiery in the principal towns of the Colonies, at the ex- 
pense and incessant annoyance of the inhabitants ; the dissolution, 
in rapid succession, of the. Colonial Assemblies, and the total sus- ■ 
pension of the legislative power in New York ; the imposition of 
duties on all teas, glass, paper, and other articles of the most ne- 
cessary use, imported into the Colonies, and the appointment of 
Commissioners, armed with unlimited powers, to be stationed in the 
several ports for the purpose of exacting the arbitrary customs. 
These despotic measures, with others of a similar character, produc- 
ed immediate recourse to retaliation, in the commercial Provinces. 
The people of Massachusetts, upon whom they fell with their first 
and heaviest pressure, were the foremost also in resisting their oper- 
ation. They entered into an association, by which they agreed 
and solemnly bound themselves, not to import from Great Britain 
any of the articles taxed, or to use them. They also addressed a 
circular letter to their sister Colonies, inviting their concurrence and 
co-operation, in all lawful and constitutional means, for procuring 
relief from their oppressions. Petitions, memorials, and remon 
strances were accordingly addressed to the King and Parliament, by 
the Legislatures of the different Colonies, entreating a rescission of 
the obnoxious measures, and blending with their entreaties, profes- 
sions of unv/avering loyalty. To these no answer was condescend- 
ed. But the non-intercourse proceedings in Massachusetts were of 
a character too ruinous to the new revenue bill, not to excite atten- 
tion. They immediately called forth a set of joint resolutions, and 
an address, from the I^ords and Commons. These resolutions con 
demned, in the severest terms, all the measures adopted by the 
Colonies. They re-asserted the right of taxation, and of quarter- 
ing their troops upon the Colonies. They even went so far as to 
direct, that the King might employ force of arms, sufRcient to quell 
the disobedient ; and declared that he had the right to cause the 
promoters of disorders to be arrested and transported to England 
for trial. 

These resolutions of the Lords and Commons arrived in America, 
in May, 1769. The House of Burgesses of Virginia was then in 



OP THOMAS JEE'PERSON. 39 

session, and Mr. Jefferson, as we have seen, was for the first time a 
member. The doctrines avowed in these menacing papers, al- 
though they were directed principally against the people of Massa- 
chusetts, were too extraordinary to be overlooked in any assembly 
which contained a Jefferson. They were no sooner made known 
to the House, than he proposed the adoption of counter resolutions, 
and advocated warmly, the propriety of making common cause 
with Massachusetts, at the hazard of every sacrifice. Counter reso- 
lutions, and an address to the King, were accordingly agreed to, 
with little opposition ; and the pregnant determination wtcS then 
and there formed, of considering the cause of any one Colony as 
a cotnnion one. The seed of the Ajnerican Union was here first 
sown. Who cannot perceive, in that spirit of godlike magnanimi- 
ty, which forgot self, kindred, friends, every thing, in commissera- 
tion of the sufferings of a distant Colony, the elements of that pow- 
erful fraternal principle, which carried these Colonies in solid pha- 
lanx, side to side, and step for step, through the angiy billows of the 
Revolution ; and which, through so many years of high prosperity, 
has overawed every rampant eliulUtion, and, by a ceaceless attrac- 
tion, held upon its point every discordancy of interest and opinion. 
The spark which was elicited on this occasion, was communicated 
from heart to heart, and from Colony to Colony, until the principle 
of <5ohesion became paramount and universal, dissolving every in- 
congruous tie, and melting into one mass, having a common inter- 
est and a common danger, the whole body of the people. By the 
resolutions which they passed, the Legislature re-asserted the exclu- 
sive right of the Colonies to tax themselves in all cases wliatsoever ; 
denounced the recent acts of Parliament, as flagrant violations of 
the British Constitution ; and remonstrated, sternly, against the as- 
sumed right to transport the freeborn citizens of America to Eng- 
land, to be tried by their inveterate enemies. The tone of these res- 
olutions was so strong, as to excite, for the first time, the displeasure 
of the Governor, the amiable Lord Bottetourt, whose facility of dis- 
position was proverbial. The House had scarcely adopted, and 
ordered them to be entered upon their journals, when they were 
summoned to his presence, to receive the sentence of dissolution. 
"Mr. Speaker," said he, " and gentlemen of the House of Repre- 
sentatives, I have heard of your resolves, and augur ill of their 



40 LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

effects ; you have made it my duty to dissolve you, and you are 
accordingly dissolved." 

Bat the interference of the Executive had no other effect, than to 
encourage the holy feehng it attempted to repress. The next day, 
led on by the young spirits, Jefferson, Henry, and the two Lees, the 
great body of the members retired to a room, called the Apollo, in 
the Raleigh tavern, the principal hotel in Williamsburg. They 
there formed themselves into a voluntary Convention, drew up Ar- 
ticles of Association against the use of any merchandise imported 
from Great Britain, signed, and recommended them to the people. 
They repaired to their several counties, ciixulated the Articles of the 
League among their constituents, and, to the astonishment of all, 
so popular was the measure, that at the call of another Legislature, 
themselves were re-elected without a single exception. 

The impetus thus given to the heroic example of Massachusetts, 
by a remote Province, carried it home to the breast of every Colony. 
The non-importation agreement became general. All the lux- 
uries, and many of the comforts of life, were sacrificed, at once, on 
the altar of colonial liberty. The history of that period presents a 
sublime spectacle of self-devotement, and rigorous patriotism. As- 
sociations were formed at every point, and a systematic war of in- 
terdiction and non-consumption, was directed against British mer- 
chandise. All ranks, all ages, and both sexes joined, with holy 
emulation, in nullifymg the unconstitutional tariff. The ladies, 
who are never permitted to be greatest but on the greatest occasions, 
established a pecuhar claim to pre-eminence, on this. They relin- 
quished, without a struggle, all the elegancies, the embelhshments, 
and even the comforts to which they had been accustomed ; and ex- 
perienced a refined pleasure in preferring, for their attire, the simple 
fabric of their own free hands, to the most gorgeous habiliments of 
tyranny. In Virginia, the anti-revenue movement was reduced to 
a system, and pursued with unparalleled rigor. A committee of vig- 
ilance was established in every county, whose duty it was to pro- 
mote subscriptions to the covenant, and to guard the execution of the 
Articles. The powers of these committees, being undefined, were 
almost unlimited. They examined the books of the merchant, 
and pushed their inquisitorial tribunal into the sanctity of the fire- 
side, punishing every breach, by fine and public advertisement of 
the offender, and rewarding every observance by an appropriate 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 41 

!)adge of merit. Such, too, was the imperious virtue of popular 
■opinion, that fi^om theii' decision there was no appeal. All who re- 
fused to subscribe the covenant of self-disfranchisement, or proved 
derelict in one iota, to its obligations, underwent a species of social 
excommunication. But the examples of delinquency were exceed 
ingly rare — of recusancy, rarer ; a few old tories only, of the most 
intractable stamp, were sent into gentlemanly exile, beyond (he 
mountains. 

The dissolution of the House of Burgesses, was not attended, as 
before remarked, with any change in the popular representation ; ex- 
cept only in the very few instances of those who had decUned assent 
to the patriot proceedings. The next meeting of tiie Legislature, of 
any permanent interest, which was not until the spring of 1773, saw 
Mr. Jefferson again at his post, and intent upon the great business 
of substituting just principles of government, in the room of those 
wliich unjustly prevailed. 

A court of inquiry, held in Rhode-Island, as far back as 1762, 
in which was vested the extraordinary power to transport persons to 
England, to be tried for offences committed in America, w^as consid- 
ered by him as demanding attention, even after so long an interval 
of silence. He was not in pubhc life at the time this proceeding 
was instituted, and consequently liad not the power to raise his voice 
against it ; but such was his strong sense of political justice, that, w^hen 
an important principle was violated, he deemed it never too late to 
rally to the breach. Acquiescence in such a high-handed en- 
croachment, would give it the force of precedent, and precedent would 
soon establish the right. A suitable investigation and protest, too, 
woulcTresuscitate tlie apprehensions of the Colonists, which had al- 
-ready relapsed into a fatal repose. This, indeed, appeared to him a 
more desirable result, than the simple reclamation of right in that par- 
ticular case. Nothing of unusual excitement having occurred, dur- 
ing the protracted interval of legislative interruption, the people bad 
fallen into a state of insensibility to their situation: and yet, the same 
causes of irritation existed, that had recently thrown them into such 
ferment. The duty on tea, with a multitude of co-incumbrances, 
still pressed upon them ; and the Declaratory Act, of a right in the 
British Parliament, to bind them by their laws, in all cases whatso- 
ever, still suspended over them, hanging by the temue of minister!' 



42 LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

al caprice. The lethargy of the pubhc mind, under such a pressure 
of injustice, indicated to Mr. Jefferson, a fearful state of things. It 
presented to his philosophic eye, a degree of moral prostration, but 
one remove from that, which constitutes the proper element for des- 
potism, and invites its fiercest visitations. It appeared to him 
indispensable, as a first measm-e, that something should be done, 
to break in upon the dead calm, which rested, like an incubus, 
on the Colonies, and to rouse the people to a sense of their real 
situation. Something, moreover, had been perpetually wanting, to 
produce concert of action, and a mutual understanding among the 
Colonies ; which was essential to a systematic and efficacious resis- 
tance. These objects could only be accomplished, he conceived, by 
the dissemination, in an impressive form, of the earliest intelligence 
of events, with suitable and wholesome comments. This would 
keep their understandings sufficiently informed, and by scattering 
the flames of excitement, which were principally local, from one Col- 
ony to another, until the whole continent should be in a blaze, 
would keep them, also, in a mutual and constant state of alarm. 
With a view, therefore, to these important objects, and " not think- 
ing the old and leading members up to the point of forwardness, 
which the times required," he proposed to a few of the younger 
ones, a private meeting, in the evening, "to consult on the state of 
things." On the evening of the eleventh of March, 1773, there- 
fore, we find this little band of Virginia patriots, consisting of Mr. 
Jefferson, Patrick Henry, R. H. Lee, F. L. Lee, and Dabney 
Carr, assembled together in a private room of the Raleigh tavern, 
to deliberate on the momentous concerns of all British America. 
The minds of these bold statesmen were in perfect unison ; and 
the concurrence of such minds, upon such an occasion, could 
scarcely fail to educe results, which should mark an era in the 
history of our nation. Nor did it so fail. This little conclave, at 
the Raleigh tavern in Williamsburg, had the distinguishing merit 
of originating the most formidable engine of Colonial resistance, 
that had ever been devised ; to wit, the " Committees of Correspon- 
dence^'' between the Legislatures of the different Colonies : and the 
first visible offspring of this measure, was a movement of inconceiv- 
ably more consequence, not only to America, but to the world — the 
call of a general Congress of all the Colonies. 



OP THOMAS JEFFERSON. 43 

This important result was foreseen, it appears, by the meeting, 
particularly by Mr. Jefferson, who has left us an interesting remin- 
iscence of their doings, avoiding, in his usual way, any particular 
mention of his own agency. 

"We were all sensible that the most urgent of all measures, 
was that of coming to an understanding with all the other Colo- 
nies, to consider the British claims as a common cause to all, and 
to produce a unity of action ; and for this surpose that a Com- 
mittee of Correspondence, in each Colony, would be the best instru- 
ment for inter-communication : and that their first measure icould 
probably be, toj)ropose a meeting of Deputies from every Colo- 
ny^ at some central place, who should be charged with the direction 
of the measures which should be taken by all." 

This presentiment, of the call of a General Congress, as the re- 
sult of their meeting, must have made a powerful impression upon 
the mind of Mr. Jefferson ; for at the age of seventy-three it was 
still fresh in his memory. In a letter to a son of Dabney Carr, 
in 1816, he alludes to it : "I remember that Mr. Carr and myself, 
returning home together, and conversing on the subject, by the way, 
concurred in the conclusion, that that measure [Committees of Cor- 
respondence] must inevitably beget the meeting of a Congress of 
Deputies from all the Colonies, for the purpose of uniting all in the 
same principles and measures, for the maintenance of our rights." 

It being decided to recommend the appointment of these commit- 
tees, Mr. Jefferson proceeded to draft a set of resolutions to that in- 
tent, and improved the opportunity to insert a special one, directing 
an incjuiry into the judicial proceedings in Rhode-Island. The reso- 
lutions being agreed to, it was decided to propose them to the House 
of Burgesses, the next morning. His colleagues in council, pressed 
uix)n Mr. Jefferson to move them; "but I urged," says he, "that 
it should be done by Mr. Carr, my friend and brother-in-law, then a 
new member, to whom I Avished an opportunity should be given, of 
making known to the House, his great worth and talents." It was 
accordingly agreed that Mr. Carr should move them ; after which, 
this patriotic coterie dissolved, and repaired to their lodgings. 

The resolutions were brought foi-ward in the House of Burgesses, 
the next morning, by young Mr. Carr ; who failed not to exhibit on 
the occasion, "his great worth and talents," in a speech which elec- 
trified the whole assembly. For once, it is said, the genius of Hen- 
ry stood rebuked, before the eloquence of such a rival. Mr. Carr 



44 LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

was a member from the county of Louisa^ handsome in person, dig- 
nified and engaging in manners, rich in imagination, cogent in rea-- 
soiling, firm and undaunted in purpose, enthusiastic in the cause of 
Uberty ; and from the high promise which tliis display of his abili- 
ties and patriotism inspired, lie was hailed as a powerful acquisition 
to the reform party. The members flocked around him, greeted 
him ^^'ith praises, which spoke fervently in their countenances ; and 
congratulated themselves on the accession of such a champion to . 
tlieir cause. But how soon were these proud anticipations blighted . 
Brief Mas the career of the eloquent and lamented Carr. In two 
months from the occasion which witnessed this, his first and last 
popular triumph, he was no more. 

With what sensations Mr. Jefferson contemplated the success of 
'•his friend and l)rother-in-law," and marked the deep sentiment of 
admiration which pervaded every bosom, can only be imagined. 
His great expectations were realized ; he was overpowered with de- 
light ; and the scene altogether, made an impression upon him, 
which time coidd not obliterate. Nearly half a century afterwards, 
he reverts to the transaction, in a letter to a friend, v^'ith a freshness 
which showed a heart yet warm with the feeling it excited. 

"I well remember the pleasure expressed in the countenance and 
coilversation of the members generally, on this debut of Mr. Can-, 
and the hopes they conceived, as vv^ell from the talents as the patriot- 
ism it manifested. But he died within tv;o months after, and in him 
we lost a powerful fellow lajjorer. His character was of a high oi'- 
der. A spotless integrity, soimd judgment, handsome imagination, 
enriched by education and reading, tjuick and clear in his concep- 
tions, of correct and ready elocution, impressing every hearer with 
the sincerity of the heart from which it flowed. His firmness was 
inflexible in whatever he thought was right : but when no moral 
principle stood in the way, never had man more of the milk of hu- 
man kindness, of indulgence, of softness, of pleasantry in conver- 
sation and conduct. The lumiber of his friends, and the warmth 
of their aticction, were proofs of his worth, and of their estimate of 
it. To give to those now living, an idea of the affliction j^roduced 
by his death, in the minds of all who knew him, I liken it to that 
lately felt by themselves, on the death of his eldest son, Peter Carr. 
so like him in all his endowments and moral qualities, and whose 
recollection can never recur without a deep-drawn sigh from the I30- 
som of any one who kncAV him." 

The resolutions were adopted the same day, March 12, 1773, 
without a dissenting voice. They had been drafted so dexter- 



OP THOMAS JEFFERSON. 45 

ously, and in such guarded terms, as not to awaken a suspicion 
in the old and cautious members, of their probable tendency ; whicli 
caused a unanimous concurrence in the vote. They stand recorded 
on the journals of the House, thus : 

Whereas, the minds of His Majesty's most faithful subjects in this 
Colony have been much disturbed, by various rumors, and reports 
of proceedings^ tending to deprive them of their ancient, legal, and 
constitutional rights : 

"And whereas, the affairs of this Colony are frequently connect- 
ed with those of Great Britain, as well as the neighboring Colo- 
nies, which renders a communication of sentiments necessary ; in 
order, therefore, to remove the uneasiness, and to quiet the minds 
of the people, as well as for the other good purposes above mention- 
ed : 

" Be it resolved. That a standing Committee of CoiTespondence 
and enquiry be appointed, to consist of eleven persons, to wit : the 
honorable Peyton Randolph, Robert C. Nicholas, Richard Bland, 
Richard H. Lee, Benjamin Harrison, Edmund Pendleton, Patrick 
Henry, Dudley Digges, Dabney Carr, Archibald Cary, and Thom- 
as Jetf'erson, esquires, any six of whom be a committee, whose bu- 
siness it shall be to obtain the most early and authentic intelligence 
of all such acts and resolutions of the British Parliament, or proceed- 
ings of administration, as may relate to, or affect the British Colo- 
nies in America ; and to keep up and maintain a coriespondence 
and communication with our sister Colonies, respecting those impor- 
tant considerations ; and the result of such their proceedings, from 
time to time, to lay before this House. 

" Resolved, That it be an instruction to the said committee, that 
they do, without delay, inform themselves particularly of the princi- 
ples and authority, on which was constituted a court of enquiry, said 
to have been lately held in Rhode-Island, with powers to transport 
persons accused of offences committed in America, to places beyond 
the seas to be tried. 

" The said resolutions being severally read a second time, were, 
upon the question severally put thereupon, agreed to by the House, 
nemine coiitradicente. 

" Resolved, That the Speaker of this House do transmit to the 
Speakers of the different Assemblies of the British Colonies on the 
continent, copies of the said resolutions, and desire that they will 
lay them before their respective Assemblies, and request them to ap- 
point some person or persons of their respective bodies, to communi- 
cate from time to time with the said conrntiittee." 

The House of Burgesses had no sooner passed these resolutions, 
than they were dissolved, as usual, by the Governor, then Lord Dun- 
more. For, although clothed in the most plausible and inoffensive 



46 LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

language, that watchful Executive had too much sagacit)^ not to 
perceive, that they laid the foundation for a more formidable amount 
of resistance, than had yet been apprehended. But the sentence 
of dissolution had no other effect, than to give a popular impulse 
to the proceedings that led to it ; and to excite to greater promp- 
titude and zeal, those who were designated in the resolutions, for 
putting the machine into operation. The very next day, the Com- 
mittee of Correspondence assembled, organized, and proceeded to 
business. They adopted a Circular letter, prepared by Mr. Jefter- 
son, to the Speakers of the other Colonies, enclosing to each a copy 
of the resolutions ; and left it in charge with their Chairman, Pey- 
ton Randolph, who was also Speaker of the House, to transmit 
them by expresses. The chief mover, thus had the happiness to see 
his favorite measure in an energetic course of execution. 

Although the result of the Raleigh consultation had a more 
decisive bearing upon the subseciuent movements of the country; 
than any recoimnendation that had preceded it, yet we find no 
mention of the occurrence in any of the numerous books of our 
revolution. But the history of the American Revolution has not 
been written, so said John Adams, in 1815; Mr. Jefferson echoes 
back the sentiment of his correspondent, and adds, it never can be 
written. ' On the subject, says h^, of the history of the American 
Revolution, you ask, who shall write it ? Who can write it ? And 
who \<\Vi ever he able to v^'rite it 1 Nobody ; except merely its exter- • 
ual facts ; all its councils, designs, and discussions were conducted 
in secret, and no traces of them were preserved. These, which 
are the life and soul of history, must forever be unknown.' Mr. 
Madison is the only person now, who can be looked to with any 
confid<nice, to supply the revelation of these 'councils and designs,' 
and tiie public expectation is strongly directed to that quarter ; but 
it is not probaljle that even he possesses the requisite materials foi' 
such an undertaking. 

As an example of the imperfection of our revolutionary chroni- 
cles it should lie here noted, that the origination of these Commit- 
tees of Correspondence between the Colonies, was for a long time 
claimed in behalf of Massachusetts. Gordon was the first historian 
who committed the oversight;* Marshall! copied Gordon, with 



+ Vol. 1. page 202. t Life of Washington, Vol. 2. p. 139. 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSOK. JT 

some improvements upon the text ; succeeding historians, copying 
tliem, repeated the error, until it became estal3lished. But tlie mat- 
ter was set to riglits in a letter from Mr. Jefferson to Samuel A, 
Wells, of Boston, dated May 12th, 1819 ; in which the historical 
distinction is lucidly traced between the jnovincial Committees of 
Correspondence, which originated iri Massachusetts, in 1772, and 
the national Committees, which originated in Virginia, in 1773; 
the former, were expressly for a correspondence among the several 
towns of that province only ; the latter, for a correspondence among 
the several Colonies. Mr. Wells, upon an investigation of the 
subject, concurs in the same conclusion, in a letter to his informant ; 
and further shows, that Massachusetts did not adopt the measure, 
but on the receipt of the proposition from Virginia, which was at 
their next session. Mr. Jefferson, however, is slightly mistaken in 
ascribing the error, in the first instance, to Marshall, who is par- 
tially supported by the previous authority ; though he does not ex- 
pressly cite him upon the point. 

The recommendation of the Virginia Legislature was responded 
to with alacrity by the sister Colonies, and parallel Committees of 
Correspondence were appointed by them all, as their Assemblies 
successively convened. By this means, a channel of direct and 
vigorous inter-comnmnication was established between the various 
Provinces; which, by the reciprocal interchange of opinions and 
alarms, and the mutual fusion of interests and affections, maintain- 
ed a steady equalization of purpose and action throughout the Colo- 
nies, and " consolidated the phalanx w^hich breasted the power of 
Britain." The operations of this great poUtical institution were 
incalculably beneficial to the American cause. Its precise influ- 
ence upon the course and management of the Revolution has 
never teen critically and historically ascertained. Its mighty cabinet 
has never been broken open, and the contents exposed to the world ; 
yet it Is supposed, that the publication of its voluminous correspond- 
ence would exhibit some of the most vehement productions of Mr. 
Jefferson's pen, as he sustained an acdve agency in its functions : 
and it is generally believed, tJiat the revelation of its transactions 
and counsels, would develope to the world the secret springs and 
causes of many movements, the knowledge of which would reflect 
accumulated gloiy on the venerated chiefs of that bold era. 



48 LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

As was predicted Vjy Mr. Jefferson, and his confederates in the 
scheme, .the estabhshment of Corresponding Committees resulted 
in the convocation of a General Congress ; which event followed^ 
indeed, the ensuing year. The intermediate steps to that unportant 
result, require a summary notice, in order to display the connection 
of the prophecy with the fulfilment. 

The resistance to the revenue impositions had been conducted 
with such inflexibility, and such general concert, as to have check- 
ed the regular current of importation into the Colonies, and occa- 
sioned a prodigious surchai-ge of the dutied commodities in Eng- 
land. Immense quantities of tea, in particular, had accumulated 
in the warehouses of the East India company — a monopoly, which 
was much caressed by the Government, and had an extensive in- 
fluence over it. This Company having obtained permission to 
transport their tea, free of the usual export duty, from Great Brit- 
ain to America, on condition, that upon its introduction there, the 
duty of three pence per pound should be paid, immediately dis- 
patched enormous shipments to Boston, and other American ports. 
On the arrival of the tea in Boston, the patriots were thrown into a 
phrenzy of mingled indignation and alarm. They saw, and felt, 
that the crisis now approached, which was to decide the great ques- 
tion, whether they would submit to taxation without representation, 
or brave the consequences of some decisive movement, of a physi- 
cal nature, adequate to relieve them from the emergency. For, if 
the tea was permitted to be landed, it would be sold, the duties 
paid, and all that they had gained, be lost. They resolved, 'there- 
fore, that it should not be landed ; and the resolution was no sooner 
formed, than executed, by the destruction of the entire cargo. 

The intelligence of this spirited coup de main in vindication of 
popular rights, so exasperated the British ministry, that, in their 
thirst for vengeance, they resorted to a measure which fixed the 
irrevocable sentence of dismemberment upon the British empire. 
This was the famous Boston Port Bill, by which the harbor of that 
great commercial emporium was closed against the importation of 
any goods, wares or merchandise whatsoever, from and after the 
first day of June, 1774. 

Upon the arri,val in Bostofi of the rumor of the impending ca- 
lamity, a meeting of the inhabitants was called ; the act was de- 
nounced as cruel and flagitious ; they made their appeal to God 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 49 

and the world. Numerous copies of tlie act were printed and dis- 
persed over the Colonies ; and to make a deeper impression on 
the multitude, the copies were printed on mourning paper, lx)rder- 
od with black lines ; and they were cried through the country as 
the ' barbarous, cruel, sanguinary and inhuman murder^* 

The Legislature of Virginia was in session when the news of 
this tyrannical interdict was received, to wit, in May, 1774. Mr. 
Jefferson was still a member, and his sympathies for the bleeding 
partizans of liberty at the North, now rose to a point unequalled at 
any previous stage of their sufferings. Quickly perceiving the ad- 
vantages to be derived from the popular effervescence, which he 
foresaw it would create, ho as quickly devised the means for wield- 
ing those advantages to effect, and for the l^cnefit of the common 
cause. The history of tlie machinery, which his creative genius 
now put in motion, is curious and interesting. Fearful to trust the 
lead, at this propitious moment, to the tardy pace of the old mem- 
l)ers, he again rallied the little council of chiefs, v/ith whom he had 
confederated on the former occasion, and concerted a private meet- 
ing, the same evening, at the Council Chaml^er of the Library, ' to 
consult on the proper measures to be taken.' Punctual at the ap- 
pointed hour, those kindred spirits met ; and mutually ripe in 
sentiment, they unanimously agreed, that they ' must boldly take 
an unequivocal stand in the line Avith Massachusetts.' They were 
also impressed with the necessity of arousing the people from the 
apathy into which they had fallen, as to passing events ; and for 
this purpose, Mr. Jefferson, with a keensighted perception of human 
nature, that would have honored the wisdom of age, proposed the 
appointment of a day of general fasting and jirayer tlirougJiout 
the Colony, " as most likely to call up and alarm their attention." 
The proposition met an enthusiastic acceptance with his colleagues : 
and he was requested to prepare the necessary instrument, to be 
presented to the House. The reader will be cvirious to learn 
how Mr. Jefferson proceeded to mature, and marshal in proper 
form, the appropriate technics of so grave and serious a per- 
formance. '• No example," says he, " of such a solemnity had ex- 
isted since the days of ovu- distress in the war of '55, since which a 
new generation had grown up. With the help, therefore, of Rush- 

* Botta, Vol. 1. page 120. 



50 LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

woith, whom we rummaged over for the revolutionary precedents 
and forms of the Puritans of that day, preserved by him, we cooked 
up a resohition, somewhat modernizing their phrases, for appointing 
the first day of June, on which the Port Bill was to commence^ 
for a day of fasting, humiliation and prayer, to implore Heaven to 
avert from us the evils of civil war, to inspire us with firmness in 
support of our rights, and to turn the hearts of the King and Par- 
liament to moderation and justice." The draft was approved by 
the consulting members ; but before they separated, another impor- 
tant figure was necessary to be arranged ; and the manner in which 
it was done, showed the wisdom and sagacity which presided over 
the deliberations of that heroic conclave. " To give greater empha- 
sis to our proposition," continues Mr. Jefferson, " we agreed to wait, 
the next morning, on Mr. Nicholas, whose grave and religious char- 
acter was more in unison with the tone of our resolution, and to 
solicit him to move it." They accordingly went to Mr. Nicholas 
the next morning. He moved it the same day, May 24th ; and 
to their equal astonishment and gratification, it passed without 
opposition. 

The instrument was drawn up very much after the pattern of 
the New England proclamations of the present day, with great 
solemnity of air and phraseology, directing the members, " preceded 
by the Speaker and mace," to assemble on the appointed day, " de- 
voutly to implore the Divine interposition for averting the heavy 
calamity which threatens destruction to our civil rights, and the 
evils of civil war ; to give us one heart and one mind, firmly to 
oppose, by all just and proper means, every injury to American 
rights ; and that the minds of His Majesty and Parliament may 
be inspired from above with wisdom, moderation, and justice, to 
remove from the loyal people of America, all cause of alarm from 
a continued pursuit of measures pregnant with their ruin." 

The solemn example of Virginia was the signal for a general 
movement among the Colonies. The same religious observance 
was ordered to be kept, on the same day, in all the principal towns ; 
and the first day of June was a day of general mourning through- 
out the continent. Business was suspended ; the bells all sounded 
a funeral knell; the pulpits reverberated with incendiary discourses ; 
and every engine of popular terror was put in requisition. In Vir- 
ginia, the heavens were shrouded in gloom ; the ministers of the 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 51 

relio^ion, arrayed in their long black robes, headed processions of the 
people, and alarmed them, from the pulpit, with terrific appeals to 
their passions ; the popular orators pronounced their inflammatory 
harrangues ; the committees of vigilance circulated the infection 
into every village ; and all co-operated, with prodigious effect, in 
promoting the general conflagration. The countenances of the 
multitude, it appears, partook wofuUy of the general eclipse. " The 
people," says Mr. Jefferson, "met generally, with anxiety and alarm 
in their countenances, and the effect of the day, through the whole 
Colony, was like a shock of electricity, arousing every man, and 
placing him erect and solidly on his centre." 

But the most important transaction of this eventful session, re- 
mains to be considered. The chain of causes and consequences, 
conducted, by a close and happy involution, to the grand result, so 
confidently predicted, and so much desired by Mr. Jefferson. It 
would hardly seem credible at the present day, that a resolution for 
the appointment of a religious ceremony, conceived in such terms of 
mingled devotion and loyalty, as was that of the House of Burgess- 
es, should have provoked the hostile interposition of the Executive 
power. But so it was. The order of the House, for a general fast, 
had no sooner fallen under the jealous eye of Lord Dunmore, than 
he made his appearance before them with the following speech : 
" Mr. Speaker and gentlemen of the House of Burgesses : I have 
in my hand a paper published by order of your House, conceived in 
such terms as reflect highly upon His Majesty and the Parliament of 
Great Britain, which makes it necessary to dissolve you, and you 
are dissolved accordingly." 

But the powers of the government had become completely par- 
alyzed in that contumacious Colony ; and its Executive decrees were 
regarded as idle ceremonies. Disrobed of their ofllicial capacity on- 
ly, not disheartened, nor disunited in purpose, the whole body of the 
members, headed by the bold chiefs whom we have so often desig- 
nated, repaired in a mass to the Apollo, the consecrated seat of their 
former deliberations. They immediately organized themselves into 
an independent Convention, agreed to an association, more solemnly 
than ever, against the calamitous revenue system; declared, boldly, 
that an attack on any one Colony, to compel submission to arbitrary 
taxes, should be considered an attack on all British America ; and 
instruaed their Committee of Correspondence to prq)ose to the cor- 



52 LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

responding committees of the other Colonies, the expediency of ap- 
pointing Deputies to meet in Congress, annually, at such place 
as should be convenient, to direct, from time to time, the measures 
required by the general interest. 

The following is the manifesto adopted on this occasion, signed 
l)y eighty-nine members. The internal evidence, Avhich is suffi- 
ciently strong, is the only proof Mr. Jefferson thought proper to leave, 
of its having come from him. 

" An association, signed by eighty-nine micmbers of the late House 
of Burgesses. We, His Majesty's most dutihd and loyal subjects, 
the late Representatives of the good people of this country, having 
been deprived, by the sudden interposition of the Executive part of 
this government, from giving our countrymen the advice we wished 
to convey to them, in a legislative capacity, find ourselves under 
the hard necessity of adopting this, the only method we have left, 
of pointing out to our countrymen such measures as, in our opinion, 
are best fitted to secure our dear rights and liberty from destruction, 
l)y the heavy hand of power now lifted against North America. 
With much grief we find, that our dutiful applications to Great 
Britain for the security of our just, ancient, and constitutional rights, 
have been not only disregarded, but that a determined system is 
formed and pressed, for reducing the inhabitants of British Ameri- 
ca to slavery, by sul^jecting them to the payment of taxes, imposed 
without the consent of the people or their Representatives ; and 
that, in pursuit of this system, we find an act of the British ParUa- 
ment, lately passed, for stopping the harbor and commerce of the 
town of Boston, in our sister Colony of Massachusetts Bay, until 
the people there submit to the payment of such unconstitutional 
taxes ; and which act most violently and arbitrarily deprives them 
of their property, in wharves erected by private persons, at their 
own great and proper expense ; which act is, in our opinion, a most 
dangerous attempt to destroy the constitutional liberty and rights 
of all North America. It is further our opinion, that as tea, on its 
importation into America, is charged with a duty imposed by Par- 
liament, for the purpose of raising a revenue, without the consent 
(rf the people, it ought not to be used by any person who wishes 
well to the constitutional riohts and^ liberties of British America. 
And whereas the India company have ungenerously attempted the 
ruin of America, by sending many ships loaded with teas into the 
Colonies, thereby intending to fix a precedent in favor of arbitrary 
taxation, we deem it highly proper, and do accordingly recommend 
it stiongly to our countrymen, not to purchase or use any kind of 
East India commodity whatsoever, except saltpetre and spices, un- 
til the grievances of America ai'e redressed. We are further clearly 
of opinion, that an attack made on one of our sister Colonies, to 



OP THOMAS JEFFERSON. 53 

<:ompeI submission to arbitrary taxes, is an attack made on all Brit- 
ish America, and threatens ruin to the rights of all, unless the united 
wisdom of the whole be applied. And for this jiur pose it is re- 
>:ommended to the Committee of Correspondence^ that they com- 
inunicate with thair several corresponding committees, oti the 
expediency of appointing Depufies from the several Colonies 
of British America, to meet iiy^ general Congress, at such place, 
annually, as shall be thought most convenient ; there to delib- 
erate on those general measures which the united interests of 
America may from time to time require. 

A tender regard for the interests of our fellow subjects, the mer- 
chants and manufactm'ers of Great Britain, prevents us from going 
further at this time ; most earnestly hoping, that the unconstitution- 
al principle of taxing the Colonies without their consent, will not be 
persisted in, thereby to compel us, against our wilJ, to avoid all com- 
mercial intercourse with Britain. Wishing them and our people 
free and happy, we are their affijctionate friends, the late Represen- 
tatives of Virginia." 

That no time might be lost in carrying into effect their own re- 
commendation of a Congress, they did not leave their seats with- 
out first having arranged the preliminary meeting for the choice of 
their own Deputies. They passed a resolution soHciting the people 
of the several cmnties, to elect Representatives, to meet at Wilhams- 
burg, the IstJf August ensuing, to take into further consideration 
the state of <i\^ Colony ; and particularly to appoint Delegates to the 
General Congress, should that measure be acceded to by the Cor- 
responding Committees of the other Colonies. The meeting then 
dissolved ; and the members, on retm-ning to their respective coun- 
ties, were universally greeted with the plaudits and congratulations 
of their countrymen. 



54 LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 



CHAPTER III. 

From this period, 1774, the rc^^al government might be consider- 
ed as virtually at an end, in Yii-ginia. The self-constituted Con- 
vention, which was erected upon the ruins of the regal Legislature, 
immediately succeeded, hj a bold usurpation, to all its functions, and 
took the reins of the government completely into theii' own hands. 
Agreeably to their instructions, the Committee of Correspondence 
lost no time in proposing to the co-ordinate committees of the other 
Provinces, the expediency of uniting in the plan of a General Con- 
gress. They met the day after the adjournment of the Convention, 
Mr. Jefferson in the chair ; prepared letters according to their in- 
structions ; and dispatched them by messiengers express, to their 
several destinations. The proposition was unanimously embraced ; 
by Massachusetts first, whose Legislature was in session, when it 
was received ; and by all the other Provinces, in quick succession, 
in the order in which their respective Legislatures, or informal Con- 
ventions, assembled. Delegates were universally chosen ; no Prov- 
ince sending less than two or more than seven. Philadelphia, 
forming a convenient central point, w^as designated as the place, and 
the 5th of September ensuing, as the time, of meeting. 

Agreeably to the further recommendation of the memorable 
meeting at the Apollo, the people of the several counties of Virginia, 
universally elected Delegates to the preliminary Convention, at 
Williamsburg. Mr. Jefferson was chosen to represent the county in 
which he resided. Men of the first distinction in wealth, talents and 
wisdom, were unifonnly selected ; such as George Washington, the 
Randolphs, Pendleton, Wythe, Henry, the Lees, Nicholas, Bland, 
Harrison, (fcc. &c. ; and oq the first of August, '74, this formida- 
ble body, being the first deuKjcratic Convention in Virginia, assem- 
bled at Williamsburg, and organized for business, with all the so- 
lemnities of the regular Legislature. 

Anticipating, probably, that he should be called upon to perform 
his usual office of draughtsman, at the Convention ; or anxious, per- 
haps, to impress the stamp of liberality and forwardness upon their 
doings, Mr. Jefferson, before leaving home, had prepared a code of 



. OF THOMAS JEFFERSON". 55 

iiisti'uctions to the Delegates who should be chosen to Congress, 
which he meant to propose for their adoption. Speaking of these 
instructions, the author says, " they were drawn in haste, witli a 
number of blanks, with some uncertainties_^and inaccuracies of his- 
torical facts, which I neglected at the moment, knowing they could 
be readily corrected at the meeting." 

However much the diffidence of the author may have inclined 
him to deprecate the rigor of criticism, by diminishing its preten- 
sions, it is generally admitted, that this production ranks second only 
to the Declaration of Independence ; of which it was, indeed, the 
genuine precursor, both as it respects boldness and originality of sen- 
timent, and unrivaled felicity of composition. He set out for Wil- 
liamsburg, some days before that appointed for the meeting of 
the Convention, but was arrested on his journey by sickness, which 
prevented his attendance in person^ His ardent spirit, however, was 
wholly there; and so anxious was he to discharge, in some way, the 
duties of his appointment, that he forwarded by express, dupUcate 
copies of his draught; one under cover to Patrick Henry, the other, 
to Peyton Randolph, whom he presumed would be chairman of the 
Convention. His own account of the reception of his draught, is 
too interesting to be omitted. 

" Whether Mr. Henry disapproved the ground taken, or was too 
lazy to read it, — for he was the laziest man in reading I ever 
knew,— I never learned : but he communicated it to nobody. He 
probably thought it too bold, as a first measure, as the majority of 
the members did. On the other copy being laid upon the table of 
the Convention, by Peyton Randolph, as the proposition of a mem- 
ber who was prevented from attendance, by sickness on the road, 
tamer sentiments were preferred, and, I believe, wisely preferred ; 
the leap I proposed being too long, as yet, for the mass of our citi- 
zens. The distance between these, and the instructions actually 
adopted, is of some curiosity, however, as it shows the inequality of 
pace with which we moved, and the prudence requhed to keep front 
and rear together." 

The paper was read, nevertheless, with great avidity, by the mem- 
bers ; and although they considered it 'a leap too long' for the pres- 
ent state of things, they were so impressed with its profound and 
luminous expositions of the rights and wrongs of the Colonies, that 
they caused it to be published in pamphlet form, under the title of 
"A Summary View of the Rights of British America." A copy of 
the work having found its way to England, it was taken up by the 



Sfr LIFEy WRlTINGSr AND' OPINlOKg 

whigs in Parliament, interpolated some by the celebiated Burke, iit 
order to adapt it to opposition purposes there, and in that form ran 
rapidly through several editions. Such doctrines as were advanced 
in this pamphlet, had never before been heard in England, nor even 
ventured in America; and they drew upon the author, the 
hottest vials of ministerial wrath. The name of Jefferson was 
forthwith enrolled in a Bill of Attainder, for treason, in company 
with those of about twenty otlier American citizens, who were con- 
sidered the principal 'agitators' in the Colonies. The Attainder, how- 
ever, although actually commenced in ParUament, never came to 
maturity, but 'was suppressed in embryo, by the hasty step of events, 
which warned them to be a little cautious.' 

This ancient paper is highly valuable, as containing the first 
disclosure, in a round and authentic form, of the state of Mr. Jef- 
ferson's mind, on the subject of those great political questions, whicis 
were the bases of the American Revolution ; and as exhibiting, in 
the discussions which it gave rise to, and in the circumstances at- 
tending its rejection by the Convention, the ' inequality of pace' 
with which the leaders in the American councils travelled onward, 
to the same result. It is curious and impressive to take a retrospec- 
tive view of the minds of that noble fraternity of American sages, 
vAicli, some straining on to keep up, others falling bask to receive 
them, moved in a column of unanimity and powei', which as- 
tonished the eighteenth centmy. Nor will it be thought invidiouS; 
at the present day, to compare the Ijirth, and trace the relative pro- 
gress of their opinions^ on the subject of those eternal principles, 
the practical apphcation of which, in a rational and peacable way^ 
has already regenerated the political condition of half the world. 

It appears, that in the most essential ])7'mciples involved in'the 
emancipation of the American Colonies, from Great Britain — those 
principles, v/hich settled the question upon its right basis, and de- 
termined the final crisis, by forming an issue of eternal irreconcili- 
bility — Mr. Jefferson was for a long time ahead of his cotempora- 
ries. The great point, at which the leaders of that hazardous en- 
terprise, with a single exception, halted, as the ne plus ultra of colo- 
nial right, he only called the ' half-way house.' A brief memoran- 
dum, which he himself has left of that period, explains the ground 
which he occupied, and the precise distance between him and his 
compatriots. Speaking of his draft of instructions, he says — 



OP THOMAS JEFFERSON. 57 

"In this I took the ground that^ from the beginning, I hac! 
thought the only one orthodox or tenable, which was, that the rela- 
tion between Great Britain and these Colonies, was exactly the 
same, as that of England and Scotland, after the accession of 
James and until the union ; and the same as her present relations 
with Hanover, having the same executive chief, but no other neces- 
sary political connection ; and that our emigration from England 
to this country, gave her no more rights over us, than the emigra- 
tions of the Danes and Saxons gave to the present authorities of 
the mother country, over England. In this doctrine, however, I 
had never been able to get any one to agree with me but Mr. 
Wythe. He concurred in it from the first dawn of the question — 
What was the pohtical relation between us and England? Our 
other patriots. Randolph, the Lees, Nicholas, Pendleton, stopped at 
the half-way house of John Dickinson, Avho admitted that England 
had a right to regulate our commerce, and to lay duties on it for the 
purposes of regulation, but not of raising revenue. But for this 
ground there was no foundation in compact, in any acknowledged 
principles of colonization, nor in reason — expatriation being a nat- 
ural right, and acted on as such, by all nations, in all ages." 

Again, in a letter to .Tohn Saunderson, in 1820, containing some 
notices and recollections for the biography of George Wythe, he says : 

" On the first dawn of the Revolution, instead of higgling on 
half-way principles, as others did, who feared to follow their reason, 
he [Wythe] took his stand 07i the solid ground, that the only link 
of political union between us and Great Britain, was the identity 
of our execudve ; tliat that nation, and its Parliament, had no more 
authority over us, than we had over them ; and that we were co- 
ordinate nations with Great Britain and Hanover." 

This point is further illustrated in the Bill of Attainder, Ijefore 
mentioned as having been commenced in the British Parhament. 
After reciting a hst of proscriptions, among which were Hancock 
and the Adamses, as notorious leaders of the opposition in Massa- 
chusetts, Patrick Henry, as the same in Virginia, Peyton Randolph, 
as President of the General Congress in Philadelphia, the Bill adds, 
' and Thomas Jefferson, as author of a proposition to the Convention 
of Virginia, for an addi-ess to the King, in which was maintained, 
that there was in right, no link of union between England and 
the Colonies,- but that of the same King ; and that neither the 
Parliafnent, nor amj other functionary of that government, had 
any more right to exercise authority over the Colonies, than 
over the Electorate of Hanover ; yet expressing, in conclusion,. 

6* 



58 LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

an acquiescence in leasonaljle restrictions of commerce, for the ben- 
efit of Great Britain, a conviction of the mutual advantages of un- 
ion, and a disavowal of the wish for separation.'* 

It appears, therefore, that the correct definition and answer of the 
great question, which formed the hinge of the American Revolu- 
tion, to wit, of the right of taxation without representation, were 
original with Mr. Jefferson. He, following out the right of ex- 
patriation into all its legitimate consequences, advanced at once, 
to the necessary conclusion, and the only one which he deemed or- 
thodox or tenable — that there was no political connection whatever, 
between the Parliament of Great Britain and the Colonies ; and, 
consequently, that it had no right to tax them in any case — not 
even for the regulation of connnerce. The other patriots, either 
not admitting the right of expatriation, or, which is most likely, 
not having pursued, to the same extent, its necessary results, con- 
ceded the authority of Parliament over the Colonies, for the pur- 
poses of commercial regulation, though not of raising reyenue. 
But this was going no farther than Bmke, Chatham, Wilkes, Fox, 
and the opposition members generally, of the House of Commons, 
went ; and it is not improbable, that had the question been restrain- 
ed to that issue, it would have terminated in mutual reconciliation, 
upon that basis. But the f^uestion was not so I'etrained, and quite 
a different conclusion resulted. It is no small evidence of orio-inal- 
ity, that one of the youngest of the American counsellors, and a 
youth compared to most of them, should have been the first to have 
planted himself upon the utmost verge of colonial right, short of 
absolute independence. 

But there were other principles advanced in this bold political 
Essay, which were deemed equally novel and extraordinary, by the 
sages of the Virginia Convention ; and an adequate view of the 
singular progress of the author's mind, at this period, cannot be 
given, without presenting it entire to the reader. The richness and 
energy of the composition, generally, and the fervid eloquence of 
particular passages, would alone compensate for its great length. 
It will be perceived, that, for the first time, the word 'States' is sub- 
stituted for 'Colonies,' by the author. This will not be thought a 
small circumstance, when it is known, that in the debates upon the 

* Girardin's History of Virginia, Appendix, No. 12, note. 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 59 

t)eclaration of Independence even, the word 'States' was made a 
subject of repeated cavil, and in several instances, actually expung- 
ed. 

'•' Resolved, That it be an instruction to the said Deputies, when 
assembled in General Congress, with the Deputies from the other 
States of British America, to propose to the said Congress that an 
humble and dutiful address l^e presented to His Majesty, begging 
leave to lay before him, as Chief Magistrate of the British empire, 
the united complaints of His Majesty's subjects in America ; com- 
plaints which are excited by many unwarrantalile encroachments 
and usurpations, attempted to be made by the Legislature of one 
part of the empire, upon the rights which God and the laws, have 
given equally and independently to all. To represent to His Ma- 
jesty that these, his States, have often individually made humble 
application to his Imperial throne, to obtain, through its interven- 
tion, some redress of their injured rights ; to none of which was 
ever even an answer condescended. Humbly to hope that this, 
their joint address, penned in the language of truth, and divested 
of those expressions of servility which would persuade His Majesty 
that we are asking favors, and not rights, shall obtain from His Ma- 
jesty a more respectful acceptance ; and this His Majesty will think 
we have reason to expect, when he reflects that he is no more than 
the chief officer of the people, appointed by the laws, and circum- 
scribed with definite powers, to assist in working the gi'eat machine 
of government, erected for their use, and, consequently, subject to 
their superintendence ; and in order that these, our rights, as well 
as the invasions of them, may be laid more fully before His Majes- 
ty, to take a view of them from the origin and first settlement of 
these countries. 

"To remind him that our ancestors, before their emigration to 
America, were the free inhabitants of the British dominions in Eu- 
rope, and possessed a right, which nature has given to all men, of 
departing from the country in which chance, not choice, has placed 
them, of going in quest of new habitations, and of there establish- 
ing new societies, under such laws and regulations, as to them 
shall seem most likely to promote public happiness. That their 
Saxon ancestors had, under tliis universal law, in like manner left 
their native wilds and woods in the North of Europe, had possess- 
ed themselves of the island of Britain, then less charged with in- 
habitants, and had established there that system of laws which has 
so long been the glory and protection of that country. Nor was 
ever- any claim of superiority or dependence asserted over them, 
by that mother country from which they had migrated : and were 
such a claim made, it is believed His Majesty's subjects in Great 
Britain have too firm a feeling of the rights derived to them from 
their ancestors, to bow down the sovereignty of their State before such 



60 LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

viMonary pretensions. And it is thought that no cii'cumstance" ha^ 
occurred to distinguish, materially, the British irom the Saxon emi^ 
gration. America was conquered, and her settlements made and 
firmly established, at the expense of individuals, and not of the 
British pulilic. Their own l)lood was spilt in acquiring lands for 
their settlement, their own fortunes expended in making that set- 
dement effectual. For themselves they fought, for themselves 
they conquered, and for themselves alone they have right to hold. 
No shilling was ever issued from the public treasures of His Majes- 
ty, or his ancestors, for their assistance, till of very late times, after 
the Colonies had become established on a firm and permanent foot- 
ing. That then, indeed, having become valuable to Great Britain 
for her commercial purposes, his Parliament was pleased to lend 
them assistance, against an enemy who would fain have draAvn to 
herself the benefits of their commerce, to the great aggrandizement 
of herself, and danger of Great Britain. Such assistance, and in 
such circumstances, they had often before given to Portugal and 
other allied States, with whom they carry on a commercial inter- 
course. Yet these States never supposed, that by calhng in her aid, 
they thereby submitted themselves to her sovereignty. Had such 
terms been proposed, they would have rejected them with disdain, 
and trusted for better to the moderation of their enemies, or to a vig- 
oi'ous exertion of their own force. We do not, however, mean to 
underrate those aids, which, to us, were doubtless valuable, on what- 
ever principles granted : but we would show that they cannot give 
a title to that authorit}'^ which the British Parliament would arro- 
gate over us ; and that they may amply be repaid, by our giving to 
the inhabitants of Great Britain such exclusive privileges in trade 
as may be advantageous to them, and, at the same time, not too re- 
strictive to ourselves. That settlement having been thus effected in 
tlie wilds of America, the emigrants thought proper to adopt that 
system of laws, under which they had hitherto lived in the mother 
country, and to continue their union with her, by submitting them- 
selves to the same common sovereign, who was thereby made the 
central link, connecting the several parts of the empire thus newly 
multiplied. 

" But that not long were they pennitted, however far they thought 
themselves removed from the hand of oppression, to hold undis- 
turbed, the rights thus acquired at the hazard of their lives and loss 
of their fortunes. A family of Princes was then on the British 
tlirone, whose treasonable crimes against their people brought on 
tliem, afterwards, the exertion of those sacred and sovereign rights 
of punishment, reserved in the hands of the people for cases of ex- 
ti'eme necessity, and judged by the constitution unsafe to be delegat- 
ed to any other judicature. While every day brought forth some 
new and unjustifiable exertion of power over their subjects on that 
aide the water, it was not to be expected that those here, much 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON". 61 

less able at that time to oppose the designs of despotism, should be 
exempted from injury. Accordingly, this country, whicli had been 
acquired by the lives, the labors, and fortunes of individual adven- 
turers, was by these Princes, at several times, parted out and distri- 
buted among the favorites and followers of their fortunes ; and, by 
an assumed ri^ht of the crown alone, were erected into distinct and 
independent governments ; a measure, which, it is believed. His 
Majesty's prudence and understanding would prevent him from im- 
itating at this day ; as no exercise of such power, of dividmg and 
dismemberi]ig a country, lias ever occurred in his Majesty's realm 
of England, though now of very ancient standing ; nor could it be 
justified or acquiesced under there, or in any other part of His Ma- 
jesty's empire. 

" That the exercise of a free trade with all parts of the world, 
possessed by the American colonists, as of natural right, and which 
no law of their own had taken away or abridged, was next the ol>- 
ject of unjust encroachment. Some of the Col6nies having thought 
proper to continue the administration of their government in the 
name and under the authority of His Majesty, King Charles the 
First, whom, notwithstanding his late deposition by the Common- 
wealth of England, they continued in the sovereignty of their State, 
the Parliament, for the Commonwealth, took the same in high 
offence and assumed upon themselves the power of prohibiting 
their trade with all other parts of the world, except the island of 
Great Britain. This arbitrary act, however, they soon recalled, and 
by solemn treaty entered into on the 12th day of March, 1651, 
between the said Commonwealth by their Commissioners, and the 
Colony of Virginia by their House of Burgesses, it was expressly 
stipulated by the eighth article of the said treaty, that they should 
have ' free trade as the people of England do enjoy to all places 
and with all nations, according to the laws of that CommoiiAvealth.' 
But that, upon the restoration of His Majesty, King Charles the 
Second, their rights of free commerce fell once more a victim to 
arbitrary power : and by several acts of his reign, as well as of 
some of his successors, the trade of the Colonies was laid under 
such restrictions, as show what hopes they might form from the 
justice of a British Parliament, were its uncontrolled power admit- 
over these States.* History has informed us, that bodies of men, 
as well as individuals, are susceptible of the spirit of tyranny. A 
view of these acts of Parliament for regulation, as it has l^een af- 
fectedly called, of the American trade, if all other evidences were 
removed out of the case, would undeniably evince the truth of this 
observation. Besides the duties they impose on our articles of ex- 
port and import, they prohibit our going to any markets northward 



* 12. C.2. c. 18. 15. C.2. c. n. 25. C. 2. c. 7. 7. 8. W. M. c. 22. 11. W. 
34. Anne, 6. C. 2. c. 13, 



\, 



62 LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

of Cape Finistena, in the kiugdom of Spain, for the sale of com- 
modities which Great Britain will not take from us, and for the 
jxirchase of others, with which she cannot supply us ; and that; 
for no other than the arljitrary purpose of purchasing for tliem- 
selves, by a sacrifice of our rights and interests, certam privileges 
in their commerce with an allied State, who, in confidence that 
tlieir exclusive trade with America will be continued, while the 
principles and power of the British Parliament be the same, havo 
indulged themselves in every exorbitance which tlieir avarice could 
dictate, or our necessities extort ; have raised their commodities 
called for in America, to the double and treble of what they were 
sold for, before such exclusive privileges were given them, and of 
what tetter commodities of the same kind would cost us elsewhere \ 
and, at the same time, give us much less for what we carry thith- 
er, than might be had at more convenient ports. That these acts 
prohibit us from carrying, in cjuest of other purchasers, the surplus 
of our tobaccos, remaining after the consumption of Great Britain 
is supplied : so that we must leave them with the British mer- 
cliant, for whatever he will please to allow us, to be l^y him re- 
shipped to foreign markets, where he will reap the benefits of mak- 
ing sale of them for full value. That, to heighten still the idea of 
Parliamentary justice, and to show with what moderation they are 
like to exercise power, where themselves are to feel no part of its 
weight, we take leave to mention to His Majesty certain other acts 
of the British Parliament, l)y which they Avould prohibit us from 
inanufiicturing, for our own use, the articles we raise on our own 
lands, with our own laljor. By an act passed in the fifth year of 
the reign of his late Majesty, King George the Second, an Amer- 
ican subject is forbidden to make a hat for himself, of the fur Avhich 
he has taken, perhaps on his own soil ; an instance of despotism, 
to which no parallel can be produced in the most arbitrary ages 
of British history. By one other act, passed in the twenty-third 
year of the same reign, the iron Avhich we make, we are forbidden 
to manufacture ; and, heavy as that article is, and necessary in ev- 
ery branch of husbandry, besides commission and insurance, we 
ai"e to pay freight for it to Great Britain, and freight for it back 
again, for the purpose of supporting, not men, but machines in the 
island of Great Britain. In the same spirit of equal and impartial 
legislation, is to be viewed the act of Parliament, passed in the 
fifth year of the same reign, by which American lands are made 
subject to the demands of British creditors, while their own lands 
were still continued unanswerable for their debts ; from which, 
one of these conclusions must necessarily follow, either that jus- 
tice is not the same thing in America as in Britain, or else that 
tile British Parhament pay less regard to it here than there. But, 
that we do not point out to His Majesty the injustice of these acts, 
with intent to rest on that principle the cause of their nullity ; but 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON- ^ 

t 

to show that experience confirms the propriety of those pohtical 
principles, which exempt us from the jurisdiction of the British 
ParUament. The true ground on which we declare these acts 
void, is, that the British Parliament has no right to exercise au- 
thority over us. 

" That these exercises of usurped power have not been confined 
to instances alone, in which themselves were interested : but they 
have also intermeddled with the regulation of the internal affairs 
of the Colonies. The act of the 9th of Anne, for establishing a 
post-office in America, seems to have had little connection with 
British convenience, except that of accommodating His Majesty's 
ministers and favorites with the sale of a lucrative and easy office. 
" That thus we have hastened through the reigns which preceded 
His Majesty's, during which the violations of our rights were less 
alarming, because repeated at more distant intervals, than that 
rapid and bold succession of injuries, which is likely to distinguish 
the present from all other periods of American story. Scarcelv 
have our minds been able to emerge from the astonishment, into 
which one stroke of Parliamentary thunder has involved us, before 
another more heavy and more alarming is fallen on us. Sino-le 
acts of tyranny may be ascribed to the accidental opinion of a 
day ; but a series of oppressions, begun at a distinguished period, 
and pursued unalterably through every change of ministers, too 
plainly prove a deliberate, systematical plan of reducing us to 
slavery. 

" That the act passed in the fourth year of His Majesty's reign, 
entitled ' an act [Act for granting certain duties.] 

" One other act passed in the fifth year of his reign, entitled 
' an act [Stamp Act.] 

" One other act passed in the sixth year of his reign, entitled 
' an act [Act declaring the right of Parliament over the Colonies.] 
" And one other act passed in the seventh year of his reign, en- 
titled ' an act [Act for granting duties on paper, tea, &c.] 

" Form that connected chain of parliamentary usurpations, which 
has already been the subject of frequent applications to His Majesty, 
and the Houses of the Lords and Commons of Great Britain ; and 
no answers having yet been condescended to any of these, we 
shall not trouble His Majesty with a repetition of the matters they 
contained. 

" But that one other act passed in the same seventh year of his 
reign, .having been a peculiar attempt, must ever require peculiar 
mention. It is entitled ' an act [Act suspending Legislature of 
New York.] 

" One Jfree and independent Legislature hereby takes upon itseff 
to suspend the powers of another, free and independent as itselt 
Thus exhibiting a phenomenon unknown in nature, the creator 
.and creature of its own power. Not only the principles of oator 



64 LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

men sense, but the common feelings of human nature must be 
surrendered up, before His Majesty's subjects here can be persuaded 
to beheve, that they hold their political existence at the will of a 
British Parliament. Shall these governments be dissolved, thek 
property annihilated, and their people reduced to a state of nature, 
at the imperious breath of a Ijody of men whom tliey never saw, 
in whonr they never confided, and over whom they have no pow- 
ers of punishment or removal, let their crimes against the American 
public be ever so great ? Can any one reason be assigned, why one 
hundred and sixty thousand electors in the island of Great Britain 
should give law to four millions in the States of America, every 
individual of whom is equal to every individual of them in virtue, 
in understanding, and in bodily strength ? Were this to be admitted, 
instead of being a free people, as we have hitherto supposed, and 
mean to continue ourselves, we should suddenly be found the slaves, 
not of one, but of one hundred and sixty thousand tyrants ; dis- 
tinguished, too, from all others, by this singular circumstance, that 
they are removed from the reach of fear, the only restraining mo- 
tive which may hold the hand of a tyrant. 

" That, by ' an act to discontinue in such manner, and for such 
time as are therein mentioned, the landing and discharging, lading 
or shipping of goods, wares, and merchandise, at the town and 
within the harbor of Boston, in the province of Massachusetts Bay, 
in North America,'* which was passed at the last session of the Brit- 
ish Parliament, a large and jiopulous town, whose trade was their 
sole subsistence, was deprived of that trade, and involved in utter 
ruin. Let us for a while, suppose the question of right suspended, 
in order to examine this act on principles of justice. An act of 
Parliament had been passed, imposing iuties on teas, to be paid 
in America, against which act the Americans had protested, as 
inauthoritative. The East India Company, who till that time] had 
never sent a pound of tea to America on their own account, step 
forth on that occasion, the asserters. of parliamentary right, and 
send hither many ship loads of that obnoxious commodity. The 
masters of their several vessels, however, on their arrival in Amer- 
ica, wisely attended to admonition, and returned with their car- 
goes. In the province of New England alone, the remonstrances 
of the people were disregarded, and a compliance, after being 
many days waited for, was flatly refused. Whether in this, the 
master of the vessel was governed by his obstinacy, or his in- 
structions, let those who know, say. There are extraordinary sit- 
uations, which require extraordinary interposition. An exaspera- 
ted people, who feel that they possess power, are not easily restrain- 
ed within hmits strictly regular. A number of them assembled 

+ 14 G. 3. 



OP THOMAS JEFFERSON. 65 

in the town of Boston, threw the tea into the ocean, and dis- 
persed without doing any other act of violence. If in this they 
did wrong, they were known, and were amenable to the laws of 
the land ; against which, it could not be objected that they had ever, 
in any instance, been obstructed or diverted from their regular 
course, in favor of popular offenders. They should, therefore, not 
have been distrusted on this occasion. But that ill-fated Colony had 
formerly been bold in their enmities against the House of Stuart, 
and were now devoted to ruin, by that unseen hand which governs the 
momentous affairs of this great empire. On the partial represen- 
tations of a few worthless ministerial dependants, whose constant 
office it has been to keep that government embroiled ; and who, by 
their treacheries, hope to obtain the dignity of British knighthood, 
without calling for a party accused, without asking a proof, with 
out attempting a distinction betAveen the guilty and the innocent, 
the whole of that ancient and wealthy town, is in a moment re- 
duced from opulence to beggary. Men who had spent their Jives in 
extending the British commerce, who had invested in that place, 
the wealth their honest endeavors had merited, found themselves 
and their families, thrown at once on the world, for subsistence 
by its charities. Not the hundredth part of the infiabitants of that 
town had been concerned in the act compLauied of; many of 
them were in Great Britain, and in other parts beyond sea ; yet 
all were involved in one indiscriminate ruin, by a new executive 
power, unheard of till tten, that of a British Parliament. A pro- 
perty of the value of many millions of money was sacrificed, to 
revenge, not to rej^ty, the los^ of a few thousands. This is ad- 
ministering iustJ^e with a J^avy hand indeed ! And when is this 
tempest to be arrested in ^-' course ? Two wharves are to be opened 
agam when His Maje-y shall think proper ; the residue which hned 
the extensive shor<^ of the bay of Boston, are for ever interdicted 
the exercise of commerce. This little exception seems to have 
been tirowp m for no other purpose, than that of setting a prece • 
dent for investing His Majesty with legislative powers. If the 
pulse of his people shall beat calmly under this experiment, anoth- 
er and another will be tried, till the measure of despotism be filled 
up. It would be an insult on common sense, to pretend that this 
exception was made in order to restore its commerce to that great 
town. The trade which cannot be received at two wharves alone, 
must of necessity be transferred to some other place ; to which it 
will soon be followed by that of the two wharves. Considered in 
this hght it would be an insolent and cruel mockery at the annihi- 
lation of the town of Boston. By the act for the suppression of 
riots and tumults in the town of Boston,* passed also in the last ses- 

+ 14 G. 3. 



66 LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

sion of Parliament, a murder committed there, is, if the Governor 
pleases, to be tried in the court of King's Bench, in the island of 
Great Britain, by a jury of Middlesex. The witnesses, too, on 
receipt of such a sum as the Governor shall think it reasonable for 
them to expend, are to enter into cognizance to appear at the trial. 
This is, in other words, taxing them to the amount of their recog- 
nizance ; and that amount may be v/hatever a Governor pleases. 
For who does His Majesty think can be prevailed on to cross the 
Atlantic, for the sole purpose of bearing evidence to a fact ? His 
expenses are to be borne, indeed, as they shall be estimated by a 
Governor ; but who are to feed the wife and children whom he 
leaves behind, and who have had no other subsistence but his 
daily labor ? Those epidemical disorders, too, so terrible in a for- 
eign climate, is the cure of them to be estimated among the articles 
of expense, and their danger to be warded off by the almighty 
power of a Parliament ? And the wretched criminal, if he hap- 
pen to have offended on the American side, stripped of his priv- 
ilege of trial Ijy peers of his vicinage, removed from the place where 
alone full evidence cou\d be obtained, without money, without 
counsel, witi^ut friends, Avithout exculpatory proof, is tried be- 
fore Judges prctVtermined to condemn. The cowaids who would 
suffer a countryman to l)e torn from the bowels of their society, in 
order to be thus offered a sacrifice to Parliamentary tyranny, would 
merit that everlasting infamy now fixtd on the authors of the act ! 
A clause, for a suin ar purpose, had bee^ introduced into an act, 
passed in the twelfth year of l[\<, Majesty's reign, entitled " an act 
for the better securing and preserving 'His Majesty's dock-yards 
magazines, ships, ammunition, and stores ;" aga-iist which, as mer- 
iting the same. censures, the several CoV»ies have hlready protested 
" That these are the acts of power, assu^^ed by a body of men 
foreign to our constitutions, and unack now lulled \>y our laws • 
against which we do, on behalf of the inhabitant of Bnti^h. Amer- 
ica, enter this our solemn and determined protest. And wa do ear- 
nestly entreat His Majesty, as yet the only mediator) pov^^^av \^. 
tween the several States of the British empire, to recommend to liis 
ParUament of Great Britain, the total revocation of these' acts, 
which, however nugatory they be, may yet prove the cause of fur- 
ther discontents and jealousies among us. 

" That we next proceed to consider the conduct of His Majesty, 
as holding the Executive powers of the laAvs of these States, and 
mark out his deviations from the line of duty. By the constitution 
of Great Britain, as well as of the several American States, His 
Majesty possesses the power of refusing to pass into a law, any bill 
which has already passed the other two branches of the Legislature. 
His Majesty, however, and his ancestors, conscious of the impropri- 
ety of opposing their single opinion to the united wisdom of two 
Houses of Parliament, while theii' proceedings were unbiassed by 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 67 

interested principles, for several ages past, have modestly declined 
the exercise of this power, in that part of his empire called Great 
Britain. But, by change of circumstances, other principles than 
those of justice simply, have obtained an influence on their deter- 
minations. The addition of new States to the British empire, has 
produced an addition of new, and sometimes, opposite interests. 
It is now, therefore, the great office of His Majesty, to resume the 
exercise of his negative power, and to prevent the passage of laws 
by any one Legislature of the empii'e, which might bear injuriously 
on the rights and interests of another. Yet this will not excuse 
the wanton exercise of this power, which we have seen His Majesty 
practice on the laws of the American legislatures. For the most 
trifling reasons, and sometimes for no conceivable reason at all, 
His Majesty has rejected laws of the most salutary tendency. The 
abolition of domestic slavery is the great object of desire in those 
Colonies, wliere it was, unhappily, introduced in their infant state. 
But previous to the enfranchisement of the slaves we have, it is ne- 
cessary to exclude all further importations from Africa. Yet our 
repeated attempts to effect this, by prohibitions, and by imposing 
duties which might amount to a prohibition, have been hitherto de- 
feated by His Majesty's negative : thus preferring the immediate ad- 
vantages of a few British corsairs to the lasting interests of the 
American States, and to the rights of human nature, deeply wounded 
by this infamous practice. Nay, the single interposition of an in- 
terested individual against a law, was scarcely ever know^n to fail of 
success, though in the opposite scale v/ere placed the interests of a 
whole country. That this is so shameful an abuse of a power, 
trusted with His Majesty for other purposes, as if, not reformed, 
would call for some legal restrictions. 

" With equal inattention to the necessities of his people here, has 
His Majesty permitted our laws to lie neglected in England for 
years, neither confirming them by his assent, nor annulling them 
by his negative : so that such of them as have no suspending clause, 
we hold on the most precarious of all tenures, His Majesty's will : 
and such of them as suspend themselves till His Majesty's assent 
lie obtained, we have feared might be called into existence at some 
future and distant period, when time and change of circumstances 
shall have rendered them destructive to his people here. And, to 
render this grievance still more oppressive. His Majesty, by his in- 
structions, has laid his Governors under such restrictions, that they 
can pass no law of any moment, unless it have such suspending 
clause ; so that, however immmediate may be the call for legislative 
interposition, the law cannot be executed till it has twice crossed 
the Atlantic, by which time the evil may have spent its whole force. 

" But in what terms reconcilable to Majesty, and at the same 
time to truth, shall we speak of a late instruction to His Majesty's 
Governor of the Colony of Virginia, by which he is forbidden to 



68 LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

assent to any law for the division of a county, unless the new coun- 
ty will consent to have no representative in Assembly 7 That Col- 
ony has as yet affixed no boundary to the westward. Their west- 
ern counties, therefore, are of indefinite extent. Some of them 
are actually seated many hundred miles from theii- Eastern Umits, 
Is it possil^le, then, that His Majesty can have bestowed a single 
thought on the situation of those people, who, in order to obtain 
justice for injuries, however great or small, must, by the laws of 
that Colony, attend their county court at such a distance, with all 
their witnesses, monthly, till theii- litigation be determined '? Or 
does His Majesty seriously wish, and publish it to the world, that 
his subjects should give up the glorious right of representation, with 
all the benefits derived from that, and submit themselves to be ab- 
solute slaves of his sovereign will ? Or is it rather meant to con- 
fine the legislative body to theii" present numbers, that they may 
be the cheaper bargain, whenever they shall become worth a pur- 
chase. 

" One of the articles of impeachment againt Tresilian and the 
other Judges of Westminister Hall, in the reign of Richard the 
Second, for which they suffered death, as traitors to their country, 
was, that they had advised the King that he might dissolve his Par- 
liament at any time : and succeeding Kings have adopted the 
opinion of these unjust Judges. Since the establishment, however, 
of the British constitution, at the glorious Revolution, on its free 
and ancient principles, neither His Majesty nor his ancestors have 
exercised such a power of dissolution in the island of Great Brit- 
ain ;* and, when His Majesty was petitioned by the united voice 
of his people there to dissolve the present Parhament, who had 
become obnoxious to them, his Ministers were heard to declare, in 
open Parliament, that His Majesty possessed no such power by the 
constitution. But how different their language, and his practice, 
here ! To declare, as theii' duty required, the known rights of 
their country, to oppose the usurpation of every foreign judicature, 
to disregard the imperious mandates of a Minister or Governor, 
have been the avowed causes of dissolving Houses of Representa- 
tives in America. But if such powers be really vested in His Ma- 
jesty, can he suppose they are there placed to awe the members 
"from such purposes as these ? When the representative body have 
lost the confidence of their constituents, when they have notorious- 
ly made sale of their most valual^le rights, when they have assum- 
ed to themselves powers which the people never put into their hands, 

* On further inquiry, I find two instances of dissolutions before the Parlia- 
ment would, of itself, have been at an end : viz. the Parliament called to meet 
August 24, 1698, was dissolved by King William, December 19, 1700, and a new 
one called, to meet February 6, 1701, which was also dissolved November 11, 
1701, and a new oae met December 30, 1701. 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON- 6§ 

then, indeed, theii' continuing in office becomes dangerous to the 
State, and calls for an exercise of the power of dissolution. Such 
being the causes for which the representative ]x)dy should, and 
should not, be dissolved, will it not appear strange, to an unbiassed 
observer, that that of Great Britain was not dissolved, while those 
of the Colonies have repeatedly incurred that sentence ? 

"But your Majesty or your Governors have carried this power be- 
yond every limit known or provided for by the laws. After dissolving 
one House of Representatives, they have refused to call another, so 
that, for a great length of time, the Legislature provided by the laws 
has been out of existence. From the nature of things, every soci- 
ety must at all times possess within itself the sovereign power of 
legislation. The feelings of human nature revolt against the sup- 
position of a State so situated, as that it may not, in any emergen- 
cy, provide against dangers which perhaps threaten immediate ruin. 
While those bodies are in existence to whom the people have dele- 
gated the powers of legislation, they alone possess, and may exer- 
cise, those powers. But when they are dissolved, by the lopping off 
one or more of their branches, the power reverts to the people, who 
may use it to unlimited extent, either assembling together in person, 
sending deputies, or in any other way they may think proper. We 
forbear to trace consecjuences further ; the dangers are conspicuous 
with v.liich this practice is replete. 

" That we shall, at this time also, take notice of an error in the 
nature of our land-holdings, which crept in at a very early period of 
our settlement. The introduction of the feudal tenures into the 
kingdom of England, though ancient, is well enough understood to 
set this matter in a proper light. In the earlier ages of the Saxon 
settlement, feudal holdings were certainly altogether unknown, and 
very few, if any, had been introduced at the time of the Norman 
conquest. Our Saxon ancestors held their lands, as they did their 
personal property, in absolute dominion, disencumbered with any 
superior, answering nearly to the nature of those possessions which 
the Feudalists term Allodial. William the Norman first introduced 
that system generally. The lands which had belonged to those 
who fell in the battle of Hastings, and in the subsequent insurrec- 
tions of his reign, formed a considerable proportion of the lands of 
the whole kingdom. These he granted out, subject to feudal du- 
ties, as did he also those of a great number of his new subjects, 
who, by persuasions or threats, were induced to surrender them for 
that purpose. But still much was left in the hands of his Saxon 
subjects, held of no superior, and not subject to feudal conditions. 
These, therefore, by express laws, enacted to render uniform the 
system of military defence, were made liable to the same military 
duties as if they had been feuds : and the Norman lawyers soon 
found means to saddle them, also, with aU the other feudal burthens> 
But still they had not been surrendered to the King, they were not 

7* 



70 LIFE, WRTTISTGS, AND OPlNrONS^ 

derived from his grant, and therefore they were not holden of him, 
A general principle, indeed, was introduced, that 'all lands in Eng- 
land were held either mediately or immediately of the Crown :' but 
this was lx)nowed from those holdings which were truly feudal, and 
only applied to others for the purposes of illustration. Feudal hold- 
ings were, therefore, but exceptions out of the Saxon laws of pos- 
session, under which all lands were held in absolute right. These, 
therefore, still form the basis or groundwork of the common law, to 
prevail wheresoever the exceptions have not taken place. America 
was not conquered by William the Norman, nor its lands surrender- 
ed to him or any of his successors. Possessions there are, undoubt- 
edly, of the Allodial nature. Oiu" ancestors, however, who migra- 
ted hither, were laborers, not lawyers. The fictitious principle, that 
all lands belong originally to the King, they were early persuaded to 
believe real, and accordingly took grants of their own lands from the 
Crown. And while the Crown continued to giant for small sums 
and on reasonable rents, there was no inducement to arrest the error, 
and lay it open to public view. But His Majesty has lately taken 
on him to advance the terms of purchase and of holding to the 
double of what they were ; by which means the acquisition of lands 
being rendered difficult, the population of our country is likely to he 
checked. It is time, therefore, for us to lay this matter before His 
Majesty, and to declare that he has no right to grant lands of him- 
self. From the natiue and purpose of civil institutions, all the lands 
within the limits which any particidar society has circumscribed 
around itself, are assumed by that society, and subject to their allot- 
ment ; this may l)e done l)y themselves assembled collectively, ov 
by their Legislature, to whom they may have delegated sovereign 
authority : and, if they are allotted in neither of these ways, each 
individual of the society may appropriate to himself such lands as he 
finds vacant, and occupancy will give him title. 

" That, in order to enforce the arbitrary measures before com- 
plained of, His Majesty has, from time to time, sent among us large 
bodies of armed forces, viot made up of the people here, nor raised by 
the authority of our laws. Did His Majesty possess such a right as 
this, it might swallow up all our other rights whenever he should 
think proper. But His Majesty has no right to land a single armed 
man on our shores ; and those whom he sends here are liable to 
our laws for the suppression and punishment of riots, routs, and un- 
lawful assemblies, or are hostile bodies invading us in defiance of 
law. When, in the course of the late war, it became expedient that 
a l)ody of Hanoverian troops should be brought over for the defence 
of Great Britain, His Majesty's gi'andfather, our late sovereign, did 
not pretend to introduce them under any authority he possessed. 
Such a measure would have given just alarm to his subjects of 
Great Britain, whose liberties would not be safe if armed men of an- 
other country, and of another spirit, might be brought into the realm 



OP THOMAS JEFFERSON. Ti 

at any time, without the consent of their Legislature. He, there- 
fore, apphed to Parhament, who passed an act for that purpose, hm- 
iting the number to be brought in, and the time they were to^contin- 
ue. In hke manner is His Majesty restrained in every part of the 
empire. He possesses indeed tlie executive power of the laws in 
every State ; but they are the laws of the particular State, which he 
is to administer within that State, and not those of any one within 
the limits of another. Every State must judge for itself, the num- 
ber of armed men which they may safely trust among them, of 
whom they are to consist, and under what restrictions they are to be 
laid. To render these proceedings still more criminal against our 
laws, instead of subjecting the military to the civil power. His Majes- 
ty has expressly made the civil subordinate to the military. But 
can His Majesty thus put down all law under his feet ? Can he 
erect a power superior to that which erected himself? He has done 
it indeed by force ; but let him remember that force cannot give right. 
" That these are our grievances, which we have thus laid before 
His Majesty, Avith that freedom of language and sentiment which 
becomes a free people, claiming their rights as derived from the laws 
of nature, and not as the gift of their Chief Magistrate. Let those 
flatter, who fear : it is not an American art. To give praise where 
it is not due, might he well from the venal, but would ill beseem 
those who are asserting the rights of human nature. They know, 
and will, therefore, say, that Kings are the servants, not the propri- 
etors of the people. Open your breast, Sire, to liberal and expand- 
ed thought. Let not the name of George the Third be a blot on 
the page of history. You are surrounded by British counsellors, but 
remember that they are parties. You have no ministers for Amer- 
ican affairs, because you have none taken from among us, nor amena- 
ble to the laws on which they are to give you advice. It behoves you, 
therefore, to think and to act for yourself and yom- people. The great 
principles of right and wrong are legible to every reader : to pursue 
them, requires not the aid of many counsellors. The whole art of 
government consists in the art of being honest. Only aim to do 
your duty, and mankind will give you credit where you fail. No 
longer persevere in sacrificing the rights of one part of the empu'e, 
to the inordinate desires of another : but deal out to all equal and 
impartial right. Let no act be passed by any one Legislature, which 
may infringe on the rights and liberties of another. This is the impor- 
tant post in which fortune has placed you, holding the balance of a 
great, if a well poised empire. This, Sire, is the advice of your great 
American council, on the observance of which may, perhaps, depend 
your fehcity and future fame, and the preservation of that harmony 
which alone can continue, both to Great Britain and America, the 
reciprocal advantages of their connexion. It is neither our wish 
nor our interest to separate from her. We are willing, on our part, 
to sacrifice every thing which reason can ask, to the restoration of 



72 , LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

tliat tranquillity for which all must wish. On their part, let tneiTS 
be ready to establish union on a generous plan. Let them name 
tlieir terms, but let them be just. Accept of every commercial pre- 
ference it is in our power to give, for such things as we can raise for 
tlieir use, or they make for ours. But let them not think to exclude 
us from going to other markets, to dispose of those commodities 
wliicli they cannot use, nor to supply those wants which they can- 
not supply. Still less, let it be proposed, that our properties, within 
our own territories, shall be taxed or regulated by any power on 
earth, but our own. The God who gave us life, gave us hberty at 
the same time: the hand of force may destroy, but cannot disjoin 
them. This, Sire, is our last, our determined resolution. And that 
you will be pleased to interpose, with that efficacy which your earn- 
esst endeavors may insure, to procure redress of these our great 
grievances, to quiet the minds of your sulijects in British America 
against any apprehensions of future encroachment, to establish fra- 
ternal love and harmony through the whole empire, and that that 
may continue to the latest ages of time, is the fervent prayer of all 
Britisli America." 

Upon a critical examination of this valuable paper, it will be per- 
ceived, that the author had akeady attained to those sublime and 
fundamental discoveries in Political Science, which have since, 
through the unitedinstrumentalityof himself and his disciples, receiv- 
ed such an astonisliing exemplification before the world. It is a 
more learned and elementary production, than the Declaration of 
Independence ; to wdiich it is not inferior as a literary performance ; 
but in power and sublimity of conception, greatly overshadowed, as 
is every other monument of human genius, by the 'Declaratory 
Charter of our rights and of the rights of man.' 

The author begins with the vindication of tire first principle of 
all jx»litical truth, the sovereignty of the people, as a right which 
they derive from God, and not from His Majesty ; Avho, he boldly 
affirms, 'is no more than the chief officer of tire people, appointed 
by the laws, and circumscribed with definite powers, to assist in 
working the great machine of government, erected for their use, 
and consequently subject to their superintendence.' He next pro- 
ceeds to vindicate the right of expatriation, showing that the bar- 
barian nations in the North of Europe, from whom the inhabitants 
of Great Britain descended, would have as good right to usurp ju- 
risdiction over them, as they have over us ; and from this right, the 
basis of every other, he deduces the broad principle, that the Amer- 
ican 'States' were co-ordinate nations with Great Britain herself^ 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 73 

liaving a common Executive head, but no other link of poUtical 
union. The doctors of nullification would here find a triumphant 
justification of their theory, should it be made to appear, that the 
States possess the same relation to the federal, that they then did 
to the mother, government ! He repudiates, with Ijecoming satire, 
the fictitious principle of the common law, that all lands belong me- 
diately or immediately to the Crown ; and says, ' it is high time to 
declare, that His Majesty has no/ight to grant lands of himself.' 
Finally, he tells His Majesty to 'open his breast to liberal and ex- 
panded thought ; that the gi-eat principles of right and wrong are 
legible to every reader ;' and that ' the whole art of government 
cmisists in the art of being honest.^ 

As has already been observed, the Convention at Williamsburg 
were not prepared to sanction, Isy their delilierate adoption, the prin- 
ciples contained in these 'instructions.' Tamer sentmients* were 
substituted ; the congressional delegates! appointed, to the number 
of seven ; and resolutions adopted, in which they pledged them- 
selves to make common cause with the people of Boston, in every 
extremity — l^roke off all commercial connexion with the mother 
country, vmtil the grievances of which they complained, should l)e 
redressed — and empowered their chairman, Peyton Randolph, or in 
case of his death, Robert C. Nicholas, on any future occasion, that 
might in his opinion require it, to reconvene the several delegates 
of the Colony, at such time and place as he might judge proper. 
This last resolve was more important than all the others, as it show- 
ed their determination to continue the government in their own 
hands, to the exclusion of the parent authorities, and was a virtual 
assumption of independence, in Virginia. 

The General Congress assembled at Carpenter's Hall, in Phila- 
delphia, September 5th, '74 ; and organized for business, by choos- 
ing Peyton Randolph of Virginia, President, and Charles Thomp- 
son of Pennsylvania, Secretary. Delegates attended from every 
Province, except Georgia, and were in number fifty-five. The 
splendid proceedings of that venerated body, Ijelong to general his- 
tory, and do not require any reference in this voliime, until Mr. 



*See Appendix, Note A. 

t The delegates to the first Congress, on the part of Virginia, were Peyton 
Randolph, Richard H.Lee, George Washington, Patrick Henry, Richard Bland, 
Benjamin Harrison, and Edmund Pendleton. 



•^4 LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

Jefferson became a member. They terminated their first session 
on the 26th of October, to meet again at the same place, on the 10th 
of May ensuing, at which time Mr. Jefferson became a Deputy 
elect. 

On the 20th of March, 1775, the popular Convention of Virginia 
assembled, for the second time, upon invitation of the Chairman, to 
deliberate further on the condition of public affairs, and the meas- 
ures which it demanded. Mr. Jefferson continued to be a member ; 
and the reader will be prepared to expect a corresponding continu- 
ance of bold results. We have already seen him the author of 
(pinions, which, should they become so far americanizcd as to affect 
tlie controversy, could not but transfer the decision to the bloody tri- 
bunal of nations. To a political union with Great Britain, upon 
the broad basis of reason and right, he was not averse ; nay, he 
most anxiously and fervently desired it, to avoid the horrors and des- 
olations which the other alternative presented. " But^ by the God 
that made ^/ze," said he, a short time subsequent, ^^I vrdl cease to 
exists before I yield to a connexion on such terms as the British 
Parliament 'proi^oseP The distance between the terms upon 
which he would consent to a union, and the terms which Great 
Britain had challenged, and manifested a disposition to extort, was 
too great to admit any reasonable hope of accommodation. The 
Oiily grounds upon which he would submit to a compromise, were, 
freedom from all jurisdiction of the British Parliament, and the ex- 
clusive regulation, by the Colonies, of their own internal affairs, — 
freedom from all restraints upon navigation, witli respect to other 
nations, — freedom from all necessary accountability to the common 
law, — and, in a word, freedom from all the laws, institutions and 
customs of the mother country, until they shoidd have been specifi- 
cally adopted as our laws, institutions and customs, by the positive 
or implied assent of the people. But would Great Britain consent 
to an abandonment of all her pretensions, and accept the proffered 
bagatelle ') The idea was preposterous. So far from it, there was 
Uttle probability she would yield to the far more gracious propo- 
sals of Congress. Mr. Jefferson saw, with prophetic certainty, the 
inevitable result ; and he yearned to have the same clear, strong, 
yet terrible perspective burst upon the tardy apprehensions of his 
countrymen. With that wonderful precision with which he al- 
ways penetrated the future, and predicted its developments, he had 



OP THOMAS JEFFERSON. 75 

long anticipated the awful crisis, to which tlie current of events was 
fast settling ; and we have now arrived close upon the epoch, when 
his mind was made up to meet that crisis, with all the firmness 
which the nature of it demanded. " My creed^'' says he, '•'•had been 
formed on unsheathing the sioordat Lexington?'' This event, it 
will be recollected, occurred the ensuing month. Time will soon 
disclose, with what fideUty our political apostle put his 'creed' into 
practice. 

The Convention proceeded to business. They adopted a resolu- 
tion expressive of their unqualified approbation of the measures of 
Congress ; declaring, that they considered ' this whole continent as 
under the highest obligations to that respectable body, for the wis- 
dom of their counsels, and their unremitted endeavours to main- 
tain and preserve inviolate, the just rights and liberties of His Ma- 
jesty's dutiful and loyal subjects in America.' They next resolved, 
that ' the warmest thanks of the Convention, and of all the inhab- 
itants of this Colony, were due, and that this just tribute of ap- 
plause be presented to the worthy delegates deputed by a former 
Convention, to represent thl3 Colony in general Congress, for their 
cheerful undertaking and faithful discharge of the very impoitant 
tiust reposed in them.' 

It would be doing injustice to Mr. Jefferson, to suppose the above 
resolutions came from him. They have none of the holy phren- 
zj of his thoughts, or of the uniform polish of his pen. Not 
that he disapproved them ; on the contrary, he regarded their 
adoption as an act of imperious justice, as well as gratitude. But 
they probably proceeded from that grave and tranquil side of tlie 
House, which now, as heretofore, was content to follow ; and whose 
sentiments, being more in unison with the instructions given to 
their own Deputies, were more conformable, also, to the attitude 
assumed by Congress. For be it understood, there was the same 
strong inequality of sentiment in this, as in all former meetings ; 
nor was it long in displaying itself, even fearfully. Soon there 
arose a tall and muscular leader from the other side of the House, 
who responded, in a note of thunder, to the preceding resolutions, 
as follows : 

Resolved, That this Colony be immediately put into a state of 
defence, and that be a committee to prepare a plan for em- 

bodying, arming, and disciplining, such a number of men, as may 
be sufficient for that purpose." 



76 LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

The effect of this proposition was Uke a bolt from heaven, upon 
the veteran and placid body of the Convention. A deep and pain- 
ful sensation ensued, portending a desperate resistance to the 
measure. Long and vehement was the contest that succeeded. 
The resolution was opposed by all the old and considerate mem- 
bers, including some of the warmest patriots of the Conven- 
tion, Pendleton, Harrison, Bland, Nicholas, and even the sanguine 
and republican Wythe. Alluding to these gentlemen, and their 
backwardness upon this occasion, Mr. Jefferson writes to a friend, 
in 1815 : 

" These were honest and able men, who had begun the opposition 
on the same grounds, but with a moderation more adapted to their 
age and experience. Subsequent events favored the bolder spirits 
of Henry, the Lees, Pages, Mason, &c. with whom I went in all 
points. Sensible, however, of the importance of unanunity among 
our constituents, although we often wished to have gone on faster, 
we slackened our pace, that our less ardent colleagues might keep 
up with us ; and they, on their part, differing nothing from us in 
principle, quickened their gait somewhat beyond that, which their 
prudence might, of itself, have advised, and thus consohdated the 
phalanx, which breasted the power of Britain. By this harmony 
of the bold with the cautious, we advanced, with our constituents, 
in undivided mass, and with fewer examples of separation, than 
perhaps existed in any other part of the union." 

It is a sublime contemplation to dwell upon the example thus 
recorded by Mr. Jefferson, of that indissoluble fraternization in the 
cause of liberty, which prevailed among our forefathers ; humbUng 
the pride of experience, chastening the enthusiasm of youth, and 
graduating all minds to the same height of resolution and action. 
In the chaste and cohesive patriotism of that day, no mixture of 
personal ambition ever entered, to cormpt or divide the mass. 
These gentlemen were all characters of weight in the Colony ; so 
much so, that in all proceedings of a popular bearing, it was essen- 
tial to conciliate their interest. Their opposition, therefore, at this 
stage of their advances, was a source of real anguish to the more 
ardent chiefs of the reform party. Their repugnance, too, to the 
military proposition, was as unfeigned, as it was firm. They had 
never dreamed of carrying their resistance into more serious forms, 
than those of petition, remonstrance, and passive non-intercourse. 
Their expectations were yet warm and unclouded, of a final re- 
conciliation with the parent government ; and they shrunk, with 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON* 77 

unaffected horror, from any attitude, which might endanger that 
result. Their minds had not yet expanded beyond the restraints 
\}f education and deep-rooted prejudice ; and they chmg, with filial 
attachment, to the institutions and form of government, of the 
mother country. Most of them, moreover, were zealous Churchmen, 
ardently attached to the established reUgion of Great Britain ; and 
dreaded an avulsion from her, on that account, as from the anchor 
of their salvation. They directed the Avhole weight of their influ- 
ence, and exerted all the powers of their eloquence, to defeat the 
measure ; but their resistance was overborne by the im}^tuosity of 
that torrent, which poured from the lips of the affimialive champi- 
ons. The resohition was moved by Mr. Henry, and supported by 
him, by Mr. Jefferson, and the whole of that magnanimous host, 
which had achieved such miracles in council. They put their 
united resources into action ; and, by an effort of tremendous power, 
lx)re off the palm against the wisdom and pertinacity of the ad- 
versary corps. The proposition was earned ; and no sooner was 
the vote declared, than the opposing members, one and all. filed in 
with the majority, and lent their names to supply the blank in the 
resolution. They 'quickened their gait somewhat be)^ond that 
which theii" prudence had, of itself, advised,' and advanced boldly, 
to a line with their colleagues. Mr. Jefferson was also appointed 
on the committee to prepare the plan called for by the resolution. 
The committee met immediately ; and reported to the same Con- 
vention, a plan for embodying, arming, and disciplining the militia? 
which was likewise adopted. Thus did the Colony of Virginia arise 
and cover herself with the " impenetrable segis" of popular goveni- 
«rnments, — an army of citizen soldiers. 

This was a capital revolutionary movement. Besides the local 
advantages which it secured, it operated as a stimulus to the sister 
Colonies, and to Congress. But it was even more important as 
recognizing a fundamental principle. In the preamble to the reso- 
lution, which bears the broad stamp of Mr. Jefferson's sentiments, 
it is declared, ' that a well-regulated militia, composed of gentlemen 
and yeomen, is the natural strength and only security of a free 
government ; and. that a standing army^ of mercenary soldiers 
is subversive of tlie quiet, dangerous to the liberties, and burthen- 
some to the properties of the people.' 

8 



78 LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

Having disposed of this trying subject, and transacted some other 
business of minor importance, the Convention proceeded to the 
election of Deputies to the ensuing Congress. They re-appointed 
the same persons ; and, foreseeing the probabihty that Peyton Ran- 
dolph would be called off, to attend a meeting of the House of Bur- 
gesses, of which he was Speaker, they made choice of Mr. Jeffer- 
son to supply the vacancy. To have been appointed, young as he 
was, a suljstitute of the President of Congress, was an evidence of 
the extraordinary estimate which was put upon his abilities. Last- 
ly, having provided for a re-election of Delegates to the next Con- 
vention, they came to an adjournment. 

We have now reached the precise date, May 1775, at which 
Mr. Jefferson consummated his creed ; that creed v/hich he so 
eloquently dictatedto Congress, one year after, and they so undaunt- 
edly proimdgated to the world. ' The God who gave us life, gave 
us liberty at the same lime,' was his first tenet ; ' the hand of. force 
may destroy, but cannot disjoin them,' was his last, his determined 
resolution. How beautifully consistent the profession, with the final 
resolve. The 'hand of force' had been upraised; the sword had 
been drawn at Lexington, and blood had been spilt. From that 
moment, all hope, not to say desire, of a peaceable accommodation, 
perished in his bosom. Strong as had been the ties of consan- 
guinity, which bound him to his British brethren, and none had 
ever felt or cherished them more fondly, his love of justice, honor, 
and the rights of humanity, were still stronger. Long had he re- 
turned affection for cruelty ; long had he striven, by the holy elo- 
quence of passive fortitude, and the holier eloquence of his untir- 
ing prayers, to re-establish fraternal love and harmony. But his 
' repeated petitions had been answered only by repeated injuries,' un- 
til the merciless catalogue had been crimsoned with the blood of his 
countrymen. This fatal act had 'given the last stal3 to agonizing 
affection, and manly spirit bade him to renounce forever those un- 
feeling brethren.' 'We must endeavor, he then felt, to forget our 
former love for them, and hold tliem, as we hold the rest of man- 
kind, enemies in war, in peace friends.' 

The following letter, written at this time, exhibits the state of his 
own, and of the public mind, on the intelligence of the first hos- 
tilities. It is the earliest, in date, of his published Correspondence, 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 79 

and is addressed to his old college friend and preceptor, Dr. Wil- 
liam Small, then residing in England. 

" May 7, 1775. 
" Dear Sir, — Within this week we have received the mihappy 
news of an action of consideraljle magnitude, between the King's 
troops and our brethren of Boston, in which, it is said, five hundred 
of the former, with the Earl of Percy are slain. That such an 
action has occurred, is undouljted, though perhaps the circumstan- 
ces may not have reached us with truth. This accident has cut 
off our last hope of reconciUation, and a phrenzy of revenge seems 
to have seized all ranks of people. It is a lamentable circum- 
stance, that the only mediatory power, acknowledged by both par- 
ties, instead of leading to a reconciliation his divided people, should 
pursue the incendiary purpose of still blowing up the flames, as we 
find him constantly doing, in every speech and public declaration. 
This may, perhaps, be intended to intimidate into acquiescence, 
but the effect has been most unfortunately otherwise. A little 
knowledge of human nature, and attention to its ordinary work- 
ings, might have forseen that the spirits of the people here were in 
a state, in which they were more likely to be provoked, than fright- 
ened, by haughty deportment. And to fill up the measure of irri- 
tation, a proscription of individuals has iDeen substituted in the 
room of just trial. Can it be beheved, that a grateful people will 
suffer those to be consigned to execution, whose sole crime has 
been the developing and asserting theii- rights ? Had the Parlia- 
ment possessed the power of reflection, they would have avoided 
a measure as impotent as it was inflammatory. When I saw Lord 
Chatham's bill, I entertained high hope that a reconciliation could 
have been brought about. The difference between his terms, and 
those offered by our Congress, might have been accommodated, 
if entered on, by both parties, with a disposition to accommodate. 
But the dignity of Parhament, it seems, can brook no opposition 
to its povv^er. Strange, that a set of men, who have made sale of 
their virtue to the minister, should yet talk of retaining dignity ! 
But I am getting into pohtics, though I sat down only to ask your 
acceptance of the wine, and express my constant washes for your 
happiness." 

According to expectation, the General Assembly of Virginia 
was summoned by Governor Dunmore, to meet on the 1st day of 
June, '75 ; and Peyton Randolph was obhged to leave the chair 
of Congress, to attend as Speaker 'to that Assembly. Thus was 
created the anticipated vacancy in the congressional delegation, 
which Mr. Jefferson was so happily elected to fill. But he did not 
take his seat in that memorable body until some weeks after. A 



80 LIFE, WRITfNGSy AND OPmiONS 

more imperious duty required his attention at home, just at that mo- 
ment. 

Lord Dunmore had paraded the Legislature before him, witia 
a mighty flourish of the graces, intimating that His Majesty^ 
in the plenitude of his royal condescension, had extended the "olive 
branch" to liis discontented subjects in America, and opened the 
door of reconciliation, upon such terms as demanded their grateful 
consideration and prompt acceptance. The olive branch of Diui- 
raore proved to be the famous "Conciliatory Proposition" of Lord 
North ; than which, a more insidious overture, or a more awkward 
attempt at diplomacy, never disgi^aced the annals of ministerial in- 
trigue. He immediately laid his budget before the Legislatui'e. 
with an air of great pomp and mystery. Happily, Mr. Jefferson 
was a member ; and he was entreated to delay his departure for 
Congress, until this exciting subject should have Ijeen disposed of. 
The Speaker, Randolph, knowing that the same proposition had 
been addressed to the Governors of all the Colonies, and anxious: 
that the answer of the Virginia Assembly, likely to be the first, 
should harmonize with the sentiments and wishes of the body he 
had recently left, persuaded Mr. Jefferson to remain at his post. 
'• He feared," says the latter, " that Mr. Nicholas, whose mind wa'S 
not yet up to the mark of the times, would undertake the answer, 
and therefore pressed me to prepare it." 

The import of this celel^rated Proposition was, that shoidd any 
Colony propose to contribute its proportion towards providing for 
the common defence, such proportion to be disposable hy Parlia- 
'tnent^ and to defray the amount of its own civil list : such Colo- 
ny, should the proposal he approved by the parent government, 
should be exempted from all parliamentary taxes, except those for 
the regulation of commerce ; the nett proceeds of which should Ije 
passed to its separate credit. It was jjerceived, at once, that an 
official proposition from the British Court, so specious in its terms, 
and, at the same time, so mischievous in its designs, required a 
fundamental evisceration and reply. A committee of twelve, there- 
fore, of the strongest members, was raised, to devise the appropri- 
ate treatment ; and to Mr. Jefferson, who was one of the commit- 
tee, was assigned with one accord, the exclusive preparation of the 
instnmient. In what manner he executed the important charge 
confided to him, it would be almost superfluous to repeat. The 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 81 

admirable addi ess, with which he baffled the diplomacy of the Brit- 
ish minister, and unmasked the beauties of his vaunted ' Proposi- 
tion,' has been the theme of the historian, and the statesman, from 
that day to the present. The original draught was so strong, that 
even the Committee were in doubt ; and although they consented 
to report it, they attacked it with severity, in the House. ' But 
with the aid of Randolph,' says Mr. Jefferson, ' I carried it through ; 
with long and doubtful scruples from Mr. Nicholas and James 
Mercer, and a dash of cold water on it here and there, enfeebling 
it somewhat, but finally with unanimity, or a vote approaching it. ' 

In his answer, the author did not scruple to intimate to the Min- 
ister, that his proposition was perfectly understood on this side of 
the water. That its real object was to produce a division among 
the Colonies, some of which, it was supposed, would accept it. 
and forsake the rest ; or in failure of that, to afford a pretext to 
the people of England, for justifying the Government in the adop- 
tion of the most coercive measures. He declared, moreover, that 
having examined it in the most favorable point of view, he was 
still compelled, with pain and disappointment, to conclude, that it 
only changed the form of oppression, without lightening its bur- 
den ; and that therefore, he must meet it by a firm and unqualifi- 
ed rejection'of its terms. He said, that the proposal then made to 
them, involved the interests of all the Colonies, and should have 
been addressed to them in their collective capacity. They were 
then represented in a General Congress, composed of Deputies 
from all the States, whose union, he trusted, had been so strong- 
ly cemented, that no partial apphcation could produce the slightest 
departure from the common cause. They considered themselves 
as bound in honor, as well as interest, to share one general fate 
with their sister Colonies : and should hold themselves as base de- 
serters of the Union to which they had acceded, were they to 
agree to any measures of a separate accommodation. This cele- 
brated paper concludes, it appears, with a religious ejaculation ; the 
want of which, in some of the documents drawn by Mr. Jeflferson, 
has afforded a theme of unjust animadversion upon his views of 
the Divine superintendence. 

" These, my Lord, are our sentunents, on this important subject, 
which we offer only as an individual part of the whole empire. 
Final determination we leave to the General Congress, now sitting, 
before whom we shall lay the papers your lordship has communi- 



82 LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

cated to us. For ourselves, we have exhausted every mode of np- 
phcation, which our invention could suggest, as proper and promis- 
ing. We have decently remonstrated with Parliament^ — they have 
added new injuries to the old ; we have wearied our King with 
supplications — he has not deigned to answer us ; we have appeal- 
ed to the native honor and justice of the British nation — their ef- 
forts in our favor have hitherto teen ineffectual. What then re- 
mains to he done 'I That we commit our injuries to the even-hand- 
ed justice of that Being, who doeth no wrong, earnestly beseeching 
Him to illuminate the councils, and prosper the endeavors of those 
to whom America hath confided her hopes ; that through their wise 
directions, we may again see re-united the blessings of li)>erty. 
prasperity, and harmony with Great Britain." 

It may be considered fortunate, that Virginia took the precedence 
of the other Colonies, perhaps even of Congress, in replying to this 
deceptive overture ; and no less fortunate, that the business of pre- 
paring the answer, devolved on Mr. Jefferson. A less decisive and 
unequivocal stand, at the outset, would have admitted the entering 
wedge, and perhaps ended in utter disorganization. It is not 
among the least of the merits of this performance, that the ' Union' 
is kept in uppermost view throughout, and the word ' Congress' 
sounded in the ears of his lordship, at every step, telling him. that 
that Is the door at which he must knock with all his messages of ne- 
gociation. Better evidence, however, of the high character of this 
production, could not be given, than that, on Mr. Jefferson's repaii-- 
iug to Philadelphia, and conveying the first notice of it to Con 
gress, that enlightened body were so impressed with the ground 
taken, that they very soon adopted it, upon a slight revision by the 
author, as the concurrent voice of the Nation. This circumstance 
accounts for the similarity of feature in the two instruments. 
The one adopted by Congress will be given entire, in its proper 
place. Viewed in a political light, the present essay, like his 
' Rights of British America,' proves the author's mind to have been 
indoctrinated, in the great principles of the Revolution, long before 
he wrote the Declaration of Independence. Its effect upon Lord 
Dunmore, may be infen-ed from his answer, a few days after its 
presentation to His Excellency. It was sufficiently laconic. " Gen- 
tlemen of the House of Burgesses — It is with real concern I can 
discover nothing in yom* address, that I think manifests the small- 
esi inclination to, or will be productive of, a reconciliation with the 
mother country." 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 83 

This was the last regal Assembly that ever met in Virginia. 
They adjourned on the 24th of June, '75, and the Governor could 
never afterwards collect a quorum. Himself, in a paroxysm of terror 
and despair, had some days before abandoned the palace, fled for 
refuge on board one of the British ships of war, and declared he 
would never return, unless they closed in with the conciliatory prop- 
osition of the Prime Minister. But the fearless and irrevocable 
sentence of a Jefferson was soon passed upon that ; and although 
His Excellency returned, the people would never afterwards receive 
liim, or reverence his authority. 

Thus crumbled to the dust, after having stood two centuries and 
a half, the baseless fabric of the monarchical power, in Virginia : 
and with it, " the wide arch of the raised empire fell." 

As this was the last, so was it the most important Assembly that 
was held under the royal government. By its decisions, a long 
stride was taken in advancement of the general cause. The ex- 
ample was electric upon the other Provinces, and was felt with awe 
in the great American Council. The influence of its proceedings 
upon the final catastrophe, is well remembered by an historian.* 
" The constant gratitude," says he, " of the American people, will, 
through every succeeding generation, be due to this Assembly of 
enlightened patriots. Had they, upon this occasion, have accepted 
of any partial terms of accommodation, favorable to themselves 
alone, and in exclusion of the rights of the other Colonies, or had 
they been less firm in repelling the aggressions of the Governor, or 
less able in defending their own liberties, the cause of American 
Independence might probably have terminated very differently from 
what it actuaUy did." 

The fall of the regal power in Virginia, commenced the literal 
verification of that blasting prophecy of Wilkes, in the House of 
Commons, the February before. But tlie 'loss of the first Prov- 
ince of empire' was not followed, as he hoped, with the 'loss of the 
heads of the Ministers.' In the course of one of the most vehe- 
ment and overwhelming onsets against Administration, and one 
of the most ardent and powerful discourses upon human liberty, 
every tittle of which was a prophecy, that intrepid defender of the 
rights of man uttered the following sentences. "In the great scale 

* Girardin. 



84 LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

of empire, you will decline, I fear, from the decision of this day ; 
and the Americans will rise to independence, to power, to all the 
greatness of the most renowned States ; for they build on the solid 
basis of general pubUc liberty." "If you persist in your resolution, 
all hope of reconciUation is extinct. The Americans will triumph — 
the whole continent of North America will be dismembered from 
Great Britain, and the wide arch of the raised empire fall. But I 
hope the just vengeance of the people will overtake the authors of 
these pernicious counsels, and the loss of the first Province of the 
empire, be speedily followed by the loss'of the heads of those Min- 
isters who first invented them." 



CHAPTER IV. 

On the 21st of June, 1775, Mr. Jefferson took his seat in the 
grand Council of select Arbiters, to whom America had committed 
the direction of her united destinies. In the origination of this 
Council, he had exercised a leading agency; and through the whole 
process of its establishment, he had persevered, with all that ardor, 
which the force of his opinions uniformly engendered in the pur- 
suit of great public enterprises. The emotions with which he en- 
tered upon this new scene, the object of his steadfast devotion, and 
the subject of an early, fixed, and animating presentiment, may 
well be imagmed. Here indeed, were centered all those expectations 
for his country, and for mankind, which had enabled him to sur- 
mount past emergencies with ease, and which braced him for a ter- 
rible futurity. His fame had preceded him. The novelty and ex- 
traordinary boldness of his revolutionary papers, had marked him 
as a prodigy in political ethics. He brought with him, also, a high 
reputation for literature, science, and a singular talent for composi- 
tion. " Writings of his," says John Adams, " were handed about, 
remarkable for their peculiar felicity of expression." These circum- 
stances made him an object of curiosity among the members. His 
presence was courted. Curiosity was soon changed into admiration ; 
and admiration, in many instances, ripened into attachments, 



OB" tHOMAS JEFFERSON. 85 

which, cherished by his \varm and tenacious sensibiUties, the fiercest 
conflicts of opinion were never afterwards permitted to extinguish. 
In the language of the same distinguished cotemporary, and one 
who could feehngly attest the last observation, "he seized upon my 
heart." 

The sentiment was reciprocal. He was now ushered upon a 
theatre, broad enough to match his own standard of thought, and de- 
sire of action. His patriotism had comprehended the whole territo- 
ry of British America, and would stop at nothing short. The Union 
had had its birth place in his capacious mind. It had been first 
breathed from his lips. He had pointed to it, in all his propositions ; 
and hurled it in defiance, at tiie British Premier. The consolidation 
of the moral and physical energies of the continent, was the first 
object of his ambition ; and that object was now in a fair course of 
accomplishment. 

The scene, moreover, was exquisitely adapted to his intellectual 
taste. Here was the great arena for the attack and defence of prin- 
ciple. The cool champions of reason, and the hghtning sons of 
eloquence were gathered to the combat ; and momentous questions 
of political law were required to be discussed. Noav was the time, 
thought he, which should try the 'creeds' as well as the souls of 
men. On one side, was the full grown partisan of revolution ; on 
the other, the hngerhig adherent of conciliation. Here, were the 
•half-way guests' of John Dickinson — there, the whole length 'fol- 
lowers of their own reason ;' the fervid impetuosity of youth, and 
the frigid caution of old age, were there ; yet all assembled in solemn 
array, around a conmion altar, and ready to swear eternal cohesion 
upon one point, — that of a common deliverance or a common ruin. 
The materials were worthy the occasion, and the results were pro 
portioned to both. The triumph of reason was signal and over- 
Avhelming. The decisions of that Assembly have long since passed 
into political axioms. They are revered as authority, at this day, 
and are dictating, in awful majesty, to the trembling autocrats of 
the earth. 

Congress had been in session about six weeks when Mr. Jeffer- 
son arrived ; yet an opportunity had been reserved, in anticipation, 
for impressing the tone of his sentiments upon the most important 
State-paper that had yet been meditated. 

On the 24th of June, the committee which had been appointed 



86 LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

to prepare a Declaration, of the causes of taking up armSf 
brought in their report. The report, being disapproved Ijy the ma- 
jority, was recommitted, and Mr. Jefferson and Mr. Dickinson were 
added to the committee. This document was designed as a mani- 
festo to the world, justificatory of their resistance to the parent gov- 
ernment, and required a sound and skillful disposition. The com- 
mittee requested Mr. Jefferson to execute the draught. He excused 
iiimself ; but on their pressing him with urgency, he consented. He 
brought it from his study, and laid it before the committee. It was too 
strong for Mr. Dickinson, as was anticipated by the writer. He 
still retained the hope of reconciliation with the mother country, 
and was unwilling it should be lessened by offensive statements. 
" He was so honest a man," says our reminiscent,, "and so able a 
one, that he was greatly indulged even by those who could not feel 
his scruples." They therefore requested him to take the paper, and 
re-mould it according to his own views. He did so : preparing an 
entire new statement, and retaining of the former draught, only the 
last four paragraphs and half of the preceding one. The commit- 
tee approved and reported it. In Congress, it encountered the shrugs 
and grimaces of the revolution party, in every quarter of the House ; 
and the desire of unanimity, ever predominant, was the only mo- 
tive which silenced theii- repugnance to its lukewarmness. A hu^ 
morous circumstance attending its adoption, is related by Mr. JeiTei-- 
son. It shows the great disparity of opinion which prevailed in 
that body, and the mutual sacrifices which were constantly required 
to preserve an unbroken column. 

" Congress gave a signal proof of their indulgence to Mr. Dick- 
inson, and of their great desire not to go too fast for any respectable 
part of our l^ody, in permitting him to draw their second peti- 
tion to the King, according to his own ideas, and passing it with 
scarcely any amendment. The disgust against its humility was 
general ; and Mr. Dickinson's delight at its passage was the only 
circumstance which reconciled them to it. l^he vote being passed, 
although further observation on it was out of order, he could not re- 
frain from rising and expressing his satisfaction, and concluded by 
saying, ' There is but one word, Mr. President, in the paper which I 
disapprove, and that is the word Congress ; on which Ben Harri- 
son rose and said, ' There is but one word in the paper, Mr. Presi- 
dent, of which I approve, and that is the word Congress.^ " 

This production enjoys a high reputation. The fact that Mr. 
Jefferson had any agency in its preparation, or that so strong a dis- 



OP THOMAS JEFFERSON. 87 

crimination of sentiment existed in the Congiess of '75, has never 
been stated by any writer ; nor indeed have any of those interest- 
ing minutiae, connected with our ancient history, come to the hght, 
until since the pubUcation of his private 'memoranda.' As a Uter- 
ary performance, and as a specimen of revolutionary fortitude, al- 
most incredible, the effect of which was to charge the entire re- 
sponsibility of the war upon Great Britain, it possesses great merit. 
But in a political point of view, it is insufferably tame and humilia- 
ting ; though even in that light, it was the best, perhaps, that the 
circumstances of the times allowed, inasmuch as it coincided \vith 
the sentiments of the great majority of the American people. It 
abandoned the whole ground which Mr. Jefferson had taken in his 
draught, the ground which he had uniformly maintained in his pre- 
vious writings, and the one which Congress themselves adopted, the 
next year, as the only orthodox and tenable statement of their cause. 
It intimated a desire for an amicable compact, something like Mag- 
na Charta, in which doubtful, undefined points should be ascertain- 
ed, so as to secure that proportion of authority and liberty, which 
would be for the general good of the whole empire. It claimed 
only a partial exemption from the authority of Parliament ; ex- 
pressed a willingness in the Colonies to contribute, in their own 
way, to the expenses of government ; but made a traverse, at last, 
in preferring the horrors of war, to submission to the unlimited su- 
premacy of Parliament.* 

Such were the doctrines which influenced a very great majority 
of Congress, and so continued for a twelve-month. The actual 
revolutionists were a feeble body in the House. The decision of 
character requisite to assume a posture so heretical at this time, and 
so pregnant with the auguries of woe, desolation and death, appear- 
ed almost supernatural. It was enjoyed by few even of that race 
of men. The opinions which Mr. Jefferson had advanced at the 
outset, contained the essence of independence ; and the ardor of his 
convictions had, as on all other occasions, excited a corresponding 
tenor of action. The eye of reason and philosophy, with which 
he viewed the contest, presented to him the strangest inconsisten- 
cies in the antagonist opinions ; and it was a part of his religion to 
postpone no principle of right to the principle of expediency, farther 

* Raftisay. 



88 LIFE) WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

than was indispensable to the maintenance and greatest good of 
that right. It is not surprising, therefore, that he was 'disgusted' 
with the nature of those grounds upon which the majority chose to 
submit tlieir cause to the umpirage of the world. But he knew, that 
public opinion was the only force which America possessed, and, 
that that was ' growing apace under the fostering hand of the King 
and Parliament.' He therefore, suljmitted with patience to the res- 
traints which its present condition imposed. Nor is it to be inferred, 
that even he aimed at independence as a measure desirable in the 
abstract ; but as an awful alternative only, — a matter of the last 
resort. In this spirit, he had mingled with his protestations of right, 
and his solemn asseverations of eternal resistance, expressions of a 
cordial desire for a re-establishment of the union, upon a just and 
equitable basis. But such an union, he had long been convinced 
was not within the most distant contemplation of the British Court ; 
and those expressions were retained by him, more as a matter of 
form than any thing else. After stating the grounds upon which 
they rested the justification of their appeal to arms, the manifesto 
concludes in the language of Mr. Jefferson's draught. 

It is worthy of remark, that, while all historians have concurred in 
ascribing the entire production to Mr. Dickinson, they have, at the 
same time, generally quoted only Mr. Jefferson's conclusion, 

" We are reduced to the alternative of choosing an unconditional 
submission to the tyranny of irritated ministers, or resistance by 
foree — the latter is our choice. We have counted the cost of this 
contest, and find nothing so dreadful as voluntary slavery. Hon- 
or, justice, and humanity, forbid us tamely to surrender that freedom 
which we received from our gallant ancestors, and which our inno- 
cent posterity have a right to receive from us. We cannot endure 
the infamy and guilt of resigning succeeding generations to that 
wretchedness which inevitably awaits them, if we basely entail 
hereditary bondage upon them. 

" Our cause is just. Our union is perfect. Our internal resour- 
ces are great ; and, if necessary, foreign assistance is undoubtedly 
attainable. We gratefully acknowledge, as signal instances of the 
Divine favour towards us, that his providence would not permit us 
to be called into this severe controversy, until we were grown up 
to our present strength, had been previously exercised in warlike 
operation, and possessed of the means of defending ourselves. 
With hearts fortified with these animating reflections, we most 
solemnly, before God and the world, declare^ that, exerting the ut- 
most energy of those powers, which our beneficent Creator hatli 



OP THOMAS JEFFERSON. S9\ 

•graciously bestowed on us, the arms we have been compelled by 
<3ur enemies to assume, we will, in defiance of every hazard, with 
unabating firmness and perseverance, employ for the preservation 
of our liberties ; being with one mind resolved to die freemen, rath- 
er than to live slaves. 

" Lest this declaration should disquiet the minds of our friends 
■and fellow subjects in any part of the empire, we assure them, that 
wo mean not to dissolve that union which has so long and so hap- 
pily subsisted between us, and which we sincerelj^ wish to see restor- 
ed — necessity has not yet driven us into that desperate measure, or 
induced us to excite any other nation to war against them — we have 
not raised armies with ambitious designs of separating from Great 
Britain, and establishing independent States. We fight not for glo- 
ry or for conquest. We exhibit to mankind the remarkable spec- 
tacle, of a people attacked by unprovoked enemies, without any im- 
putation or even suspicion of offence. They boast of their privile- 
ges and civilization, and yet proffer no milder conditions than ser- 
vitude or death. 

"In our own native land, in defence of the freedom that is our 
birth right, and which we ever enjoyed until the late violation of it 
— for the protection of our property, acquired solely by the honest 
industry of our forefathers and ourselves, against violence actually 
offered, we have taken up arms. We shall lay them down when 
hostilities shall cease on the part of the aggressors, and all danger 
of their being renewed shall be removed — and not before. 

" With an humble confidence in the mercies of the Supreme and 
impartial Judge and Ruler of the universe, we most devoutly implore 
his divine goodness to protect us happily through this great conflict, 
to dispose our adversaries to reconciliation on reasonable terms, and 
thereby to relieve the empire from the calamities of civil war." 

This declaration was published to the army by General Wash- 
ington ; and proclaimed from the pulpit, with great solemnity, by 
the ministers of religion. 

On the 22d of July, Congress took into consideration Uie Concil- 
iatory Proposition of Lord North. This was a final measure, and 
it is said, they delayed their answer, under pretext of dignity, with a 
view to wait the event of the first actions, from which they might 
di'aw some prognostics of the probable issue of the war. However 
this may be, they exercised great discrimination in constituting the 
committee, who should prepare the instrument. Being elected by 
ballot, the number of votes which each received, decided his station 
on the committee — which was in the following order: Dr. Franklin, 
Mr. Jefferson, John Adams and Richard H. Lee. A stronger com- 
mittee could not have been raised in that House. It combined the 

9 



90 LIFE, WRITrNGS, AND OPINIONS 

greatest maturity of judgment, with the soundest revohitionary prin- 
ciples. It was a signal compliment to Mr. Jefferson, who was Ijut a 
new member, and the youngest man in the whole body. The an- 
swer of the Virginia Assembly, upon the same subject, having been 
known and admired, the committee requested its distinguished au- 
thor, to prepare the present report. He consented ; and, as before 
observed, made his reply on the former occasion, the basis of this. 
Being intimately blended v\^ith the reputation of the writer, and the 
next in importance among our revolutionary papers, to his own 
'Declaration,' it requires a place in this volume. 

"The Congress took the said resolution into consideration, and 
are tliereupon of opinion : 

" That the Colonies of America are entitled to the sole and ex- 
clusive privilege, of giving and granting their ov.'n money ; that 
this involves a right of deliberating, v^hether they will make any 
gift, for what purpose it shall be made, and what shall be its amount ; 
that it is a high breach of tliis privilege, for any body of men, ex- 
traneous of their constitutions, to prescribe the purposes for which 
money shall l3e levied on them ; to take to themselves the authori- 
ty of judging of their conditions, circumstances, and situations, and 
of determining the amoimt of the contributions to be levied ; and 
that, as the Colonies possess a right of appropriating their gifts, so 
are they entitled, at all times, to inquire into their application, to see 
that they are not wasted among the venal and corrupt, for the pur- 
pase of undermining the civil rights of the givers, nor yet. be divert- 
ed to the support of standing armies, inconsistent \vith freedom and 
subversive of theii' quiet. 

" To propose, therefore, as this resolution does, that the monies, 
given by the Colonies, shall be subject to the disposal of Parliament 
alone, is to propose, that they shall relinquish this right of inquiry, 
and put it in the power of others, to render their gifts ruinous, in 
proportion as they are liberal 

"That this privilege, of giving, or of withholding our monies, is 
an important barrier against the undue exertion of prerogative, 
which, if left altogether without control, may he exercised to our 
great oppression •, and all history shows hov/ efficacious is its inter- 
cession for redress of grievances, and re-establishment of rights, and 
liow improvident it wou!d 1)6, to part with so powerful a mediator. 

"We are of opinion, that the proposition, contained in this reso- 
lution, is unreasonable and insidious. Unreasonable ; because, if 
we declare we accede to it, we declare, without reservation, we will 
purchase the favor of Parliament, not knomng, at the same time, at 
what price they will please to estimate their favor. Insidious ; be- 
cause, individual Colonies, having bid and bidden again, till they 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 91 

find the avidity of the seller too great for all their powers to satisfy, 
are then to return into opposition, divided from their sister Colonies, 
whom the Minister will have previously detached, by a grant of 
easier terms, or l)y an artful procrastination of a definitive answer. 

" That the suspension of the exercise of their pretended power 
of taxation, jjeing, expressly, made commensurate with the continu- 
ance of our gifts, these must be perpetual to make that so. Where- 
as, no experience has shown, that a gift of perpetual revenue se- 
cures a perpetual return of duty, or of kind disposition. On the 
contrary, the Parliament itself, wisely attentive to the observation, is 
in the estaljlished practice of granting its supplies from year to year 
only. 

" Desirous and determined as we are, to consider, in the most dis- 
passionate view, every seeming advance, towards a reconciliation, 
made by the British Parliament, let our brethren of Britain reflect, 
what would have been the sacrifice to men of free spirits, had even 
fair terms been proflfered, as these insidious proposals were, with cir- 
cumstances of insult or defiance. A proposition to give our money, 
accompanied with large fleets and armies, seems addressed to our 
fears, rather than to our freedom. With what patience, could Brit- 
ons have received articles of a treaty, from any power on earth, 
when borne on the point of a l^ayonet, by military plenipotentiaries ? 
We think the attempt unnecessary to raise vipon us, by force or by 
threats, our proportional contributions to the common defence, when 
all know, and themselves acknov/ledge, we have fully contributed, 
whenever called upon to do so, in the character of freemen. 

"We are of opinion it is not just, that the Colonies should be re- 
quired to ol>lige themselves to other contributions, while Great Brit- 
ain possesses a monopoly of their trade. This of itself lays them 
under heavy contril^ution. To demand therefore additional aids, in 
the form of a tax, is to demand the double of their equal proportion. 
If we contribute equally with other parts of the empire, let us, 
equally with them, enjoy free commerce with the whole vi^orld : but 
while the restrictions on our trade shut to us the resources of wealth, 
is it just, we should bear all other burdens, equally Avith those to 
whom every resource is open ? 

" We conceive, that the British Parliament has no right to inter- 
meddle with our provisions for the support of civil government, or 
administration of justice. The provisions we have made are such 
as please ourselves, and are agreeable to our own circumstances. 
They answer the substantial purposes of government, and of jus- 
tice ; and other purposes than these should not be answered. We 
do not mean, that our people shall l3e burdened, with oppressive tax- 
es, to provide sinecures for the idle or the wicked, under color of pro- 
viding for a civil list. While Parliament pursue their plan of civil 
government, within their own jurisdiction, we, also, hope to pursue 
ours, without molestation. 



92 LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

" We are of opinion, the proposition is altogether unsatisfactory ; 
because it imports only a suspension of the mode, not a renuncia- 
tion of the pretended right, to tax us : because, too, it does not pro- 
pose to repeal the several acts of Parliament, passed for the pur- 
poses of restraining the trade, and altering the form of government 
of one of our Colonies ; extending the boundaries, and changing 
the government of Quebec ; enlarging the jurisdiction of the courts 
of admiralty and vice-admiralty ; taking from us the right of a trial 
by jury of the vicinage, in cases affecting both hfe and property } 
transporting us into other countries, to be tried for criminal ofiences ; 
exempting, by mock trial, the murderers of Colonists from punish- 
ment ; and quartering soldiers on us, in times of profound peace. 
Nor do they renounce the power of suspending our own Legisla- 
tures, and legislating for us themselves, in all cases whatsoever. On 
the contrary, to show they mean no discontinuance of injury, they 
pass acts, at tlie very time of holding out this proposition, for restrain- 
ing the commerce and fisheries of the Provinces of New-England ; 
and for interdicting the trade of other Colonies, with all foreign na- 
tions, and with each other. This proves unequivocally, they mean 
not to relinquish the exercise of indiscriminate legislation over us. 

" Upon the whole, this proposition seems to have been held up to 
the whole world, to deceive it into a belief, that there was nothing in 
dispute between us, but the mode of levying taxes ; and that the 
Parliament having been now so good as to give up this, the Colonies 
are unreasonable, if not perfectly satisfied. Whereas, in truth, our 
adversaries still claim a right of demanding, ad UhiUini, and of 
taxing us themselves, to the full amount of their demand, if we do 
comply with it. This leaves us without any thing we can call 
property : but, what is of more importance, and what, in this pro- 
posal, they keep out of sight, as if no such point was now in contest, 
between us, they claim a right to alter our charters, and establish 
laws, and leave us without any security for our lives or liberties. 

" The proposition seems, also, to have been calculated, more par- 
ticularly, to lull into fatal security, our weU-affected fellow subjects, 
on the other side of the water, till time should be given, for the op- 
eration of those arms, which a British minister pronounced would, 
instantaneously, reduce the cowardly sons of America, to unreserv- 
ed submission. But, when the world reflects, how inadetiuate to 
justice are these vaunted terms ; when it attends to the rapid and 
bold succession of injuries, which, during a course of eleven years, 
have l)een aimed at the Colonies : when it reviews the pacific and 
respectful expostulations, which, during that whole time, were the 
sole arms we opposed to them ; when it observes, that our complaints 
were either not heard at all, or were answered with new and accu- 
mulated injuries ; when it recollects, that the minister himself, on 
an early occasion, declared, " that he would never ti"eat with Amer- 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 93 

ica, till he had brought her to his feet ;" that an avowed partisan of 
ministry has, more lately, denounced against us the dreadful sen- 
tence " delenda est Carthago ;" and that this was done, in pres- 
ence of a British Senate, and being unreproved by them, must be 
taken to be their own sentiments, especially as the purpose has al- 
ready, in part, been carried into execution, by their treatment of Bos- 
ton, and burning of Charlestown ; when it considers the great ar- 
maments, with which they have invaded us, and the circumstances 
of cruelty, with which these have commenced and prosecuted hos- 
tilities ; when these things, we say, are laid together, and attentively 
considered, can the world be deceived into an opinion, that we are 
unreasonable ? Or can it hesitate to believe with us, that nothing, 
but our own exertions, may defeat the ministerial sentence of death, 
or abject submission ?" 

On the first of August, Congress adjourned, to meet again on the 
5th of September following. 

Although Mr. Jefferson had been in Congress but little over a 
month, and a silent member, he had erected a more durable monu- 
ment to his fame, than any of his colleagues ; and stood on an emi- 
nence not inferior to the chiefest among the chiefs of that Olympic 
Assembly. The following letters, which he addressed at this crit- 
ical time, to a friend in England, are a couple of rare revolutionary 
fragments. They should be preserved as religious relics ; not only 
in veneration of the man, his pacific disposition, and his sleepless 
efforts for the restoration of tranquillity, with, though not without, a 
restoration of the just rights in question ; but also in remembrance 
of the character of that struggle which fills so sacred a page in our 
history. They show how little there was of any thing but princi 
pie, which entered into the motives of a principal actor, and one 
who was proscribed as an unpardonable among the movers of the 
rebellion. 

" Monticello, August 25, 1775. 
•' Dear Sir,— I am sorry the situation of our country should ren- 
der it not eligible to you to remain longer in it. I hope the return- 
ing wisdom of Great Britain will, ere long, put an end to this un- 
natural contest. There may be people to whose tempers and dis- 
positions, contention is pleasing, and who, therefore, wish a con- 
tinuance of confusion ; but to me, it is of all states but one, the 
most horrid. My first wish is a restoration of our just rights ; 
my second, a return of the happy period, when, consistently with 
duty, I may withchaw myself totally from the public stage, and pass 
the rest of my days in domestic ease and tranquillity, banishing 

9* 



94 LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

every desire of ever hearing what passes in the world. Perhaps, 
(for the latter adds considerably to the warmth of the former wish,) 
looking with fondness towards a reconciliation with Great Britain^ 
I cannot help hoping yon may be able to contribute towards ex- 
pediting this good work. I think it must be evident to yourself, 
that the Ministry have been deceived by their officers on this side 
of the water, who (for what purpose, I cannot tell) have constantly 
represented the American opposition as that of a small faction, in 
which the body of the people took little part. This, you can in- 
form them, of your awn knowledge, is untrue. They have taken 
it into theu- heads, too, that we are cowards, and shall surrender at 
discretion to an armed force. The past and future operations of 
the war luust confirm or undeceive them on that head. I wish 
they were thoroughly and minutely acquainted with every circum- 
stance relative to America, as it exists in truth. I am persuaded, this 
would go far towards disposing them to reconciliation. Even those 
in Parliament who are called friends to America, seem to know 
nothing of om* real determinations. I observe, they pronounced in 
the last Parliament, that the Congress of 1774, did not mean to 
insist rigorously on the terms they held out, but kept something in 
reserve, to give up ; and, in fact, that they would give up every 
thing but the article of taxation. Now, the truth is far from this, 
as I can affirm, and put my honor to the assertion. Their con- 
tinuance in this error may perhaps produce very ill consequences. 
The Congress stated the lowest terms they thought possible to be 
accepted, in order to convince the world they were not unreasonable. 
They gave up the monopoly and regulation of trade, and all acts 
of Parliament prior to 1764, leaving to British generosity to ren- 
der these, at some future time, as easy to America, as the interest 
of Britain would admit. But this was before blood w^as spilt: I 
cannot affirm, but have reason to think, these terms would not 
now be accepted. I wish no false sense of honor, no ignorance of 
our real intentions, no vain hope that partial concessions of right 
will be accepted, may induce tlie Ministry to trifle with acconmio- 
dation, till it shall be out of their power ever to accommodate. 
If, indeed, Great Britain, disjoined from her Colonies, be a match 
for the most potent nations of Europe, with the Colonies thrown 
into their scale, they may go on securely. But if they are not as- 
sured of this, it would be certainly unwise, by trying the event of 
another campaign, to risk our accepting a foreign aid, which per- 
haps may not be obtamable, but on condition of everlasting avul- 
sion from Great Britain. This would he thought a hard condition 
to those who still wish for re-union with their parent country. I 
am sincerely one of those ; and would rather be in dependence on 
Great Britain, properly hmited, than on any nation upon earth, or 
than on no nation. I3ut I am one of those, too, who, rather thait 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON 93 

submit to the rights of legislating for us, assumed by the British 
Parliament, and which late experience has shown they will so cru- 
elly exercise, would lend my hand to sink the whole island in the 
ocean. 

If undeceiving the Minister, as to matters of fact, may change 
his disposition, it will perhaps be in your power, by assisting to do 
this, to render service to the whole empire at the most critical 
time, certainly, that it has ever seen. Whether Britain shall con- 
tinue the head of the gieatest empire on earth, or shall return to 
her original station in the poUtical scale of Europe, depends, per- 
haps, on the resolutions of the succeeding winter. God send they 
may be wise and salutary for us all. I shall be glad to hear from 
you as often as you may l^e disposed to think of things here. You 
may be at liberty, I expect, to communicate some things, coiivsis- 
tently with your honor and the duties you will owe to a protecting 
nation. Such a communication among individuals may be mu- 
tually beneficial to the contending parties. On this or any future 
occasion, if 1 affirm to you any facts, your knowledge of me will 
enable you to decide on their credibility ; if I hazard opinions on 
the dispositions of men or other speculative pomts, you can only 
know they are my opinions. My best wishes for your felicity at- 
tend you wherever you go ; and believe me to be, assuredly, your 
friend and servant." 

"Philadelphia, Nov. 29, 1775. 
"Dear Sir, — * ***** It is an immense misfortune to 
the whole empire, to have a King of such a disposition at such a 
time. We are told, and every thing proves it true, that he is the 
bitterest enemy we have. His Minister is able, and that satisfies 
me, that ignorance or wickedness somewhere, controls him. In an 
earlier part of this contest, our petitions told him, that from our 
King there was but one appeal. The admonition was despised, 
and that appeal forced on us. To undo his empire, he has but one 
truth more to learn : that, after colonies have drawn the sword, 
there is but one step more they can take. That step is now pres- 
sed upon us by the measures adopted, as if they were afraid we 
would not take it. Beheve me, dear Sir, there is not in the British 
empire a man who more cordially loves a union with Great Brit- 
ain than I do. But, by the God that made me, I mil cease to 
exist before I yield to a connection on such terms as the British 
Parliament propose ; and in this, I think I speak the sentiments 
of America. We v.^ant neither inducement nor power to declare 
and assert a separation. It is wilt alone which is wanting ; and 
that is growing apace under the fostering hand of om- King. One 
bloody campaign will probably decide everlastingly our future 
course ; I am sony to find a bloody campaign is decided on. If 



96 LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

our winds and waters should not combine to rescue their shores 
from slavery, and General Howe's reinforcement should arrive in 
safety, we have hopes he will be inspirited to come out of Boston 
and take another dmbbing ; and we must drub him soundly , before 
the sceptred tyrant will know we are not mere brutes, to crouch 
under his hand, and kiss the rod, with which he deigns to scourge 
us. Yoursj &c. 

Mr. Jefferson was re-elected to Congress in August, 1775, and 
again in June, '76 ; continuing a member of that body, without in- 
termission, until he resigned his seat in September, '76. 

During his absence however, at Philadelphia, he was not inat- 
tentive to the affairs of his native State. He maintained a con- 
stant correspondence with the patriot leaders in that Province, par- 
ticularly Mr. Wythe, and stimulated them, if any stimulus was 
wanting, to the strongest measures of political enfranchisement. 
Having headed the principal movements in Virginia, of a civil 
character, he exercised a preponderating influence in her councils. 
That State also, he was aware, constituted so important a link in 
the Union, that it would be difficult for any part to go wrong, if 
she went right. She had given birth to the most prominent meas- 
ures in the Continent, of a general character ; and her precedent 
was deemed authority in the Federal Council. The examples 
with which she was now about to arouse their attention, were more 
decisive, than any she had hitherto presented ; and he felt an in- 
vincible anxiety to participate in bringing them forward, to the best 
advantage. 

The dissolution of the regal, and substitution of the popular, 
administration in Virginia, was unattended by a single spasm. 
But as yet, no settled form of government had been established. 
There was no Constitution, and no distinct Executive head. The 
legislative, judiciary, and executive functions, were all lodged in 
one body — the Colonial Convention. This was the grand deposi- 
tory of the whole pohtical power in the Province. Although con- 
fined to his station in Congress, and oppressed with the cares of the 
general administration, Mr. Jefferson could not overlook, in silence, 
the dangers to be apprehended from so jarring a combination of 
fundamental powers, in the political establishment of Virginia ; and 
he exerted his influence to procure a more perfect organization, at 
the meeting of the next Convention. 



OP THOMAS JEFFERSON. 9f 

The Convention assembled at Williamsburg, on the 6th of May, 
1776, when the vices of the existing system were removed, by the 
adoption of a Declaration of Rights, and a Constitution, 
which have existed, without alteration, from that day until within 
a few years past. The subject was brought forward on the 15th 
of May, by Colonel Archibald Cary, a man of herculean stature, 
and force of character, who moved the appointment of a commit- 
tee ' to prepare a declaration of rights and plan of government, to 
maintain peace and order in the Coloii}^, and secure substantial and 
equal liberty to the people.' Whereupon a committee of thirty-four 
persons was appointed, consisting of the wisest heads and firmest 
hearts of Virginia ; of whom, that veteran republican, George 
Mason, who was himself a host, was one. 

The question now arises which has been so often agitated — 
What particular agency, if any, had Mr. Jefferson, in the formation 
of the Virginia Constitution ? He was distant from the scene of 
the Convention, and immersed in the complicated duties of his offi- 
cial station. This question has, within a few years, been put to 
rest by Mr. Girardin, in his Continuation of Burke's History of 
Virginia. This gentleman had free access to Mr. Jefferson' spapers, 
while compiling his history, and has presented the matter in a 
clear light. 

It appears that the entire Preamhle, and some portions of the 
body of the instrument, are the production of Mr. Jefferson ;. but 
the bulk of the Constitution, including the Declaration of Rights, 
is the work of George Mason. Eager upon the great work of 
Political Reformation, the former had composed, at Philadelphia, 
and transmitted to his friend Mr. Wythe, the draught of an entu-e 
system of government, comprehending a Preamble, Declaration of 
Rights, and Constitution. But his plan was not received until the 
previous one had gone through a Committee of the whole, and 
been submitted to the Convention for their final sanction. It was 
then too late to adopt it entire. " Mr, Jefferson's valuable commu- 
nication," says Mr. Girardin," reached the Convention, just at the 
moment when the plan originally drawn up by Colonel George 
Mason, and afterwards discussed and amended, was to receive the 
final sanction of that venerable body. It was now too late to re- 
trace previous steps ; the session had already been uncommonly la- 



98 LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

borious ; and considerations of personal delicacy hindered those,* 
to whom Mr. Jefferson's ideas were imparted, from proposing or 
urging new alteiations. Two or three parts of his plan, and the 
whole of his Preamble, however, were adopted ; and to this circum 
stance, must be ascribed the strong similitude between the Pream- 
ble, and the Declaration of Independence, subsequently issued by 
the Continental Congress, both having been traced by the same pen." 
In the Life of Patrick Henry, it is also stated :t ' There noAV ex- 
ists aniong the archives of this State, an original rough draught of 
a Constitution for Virginia, in the hand writing of Mr. Jefferson, 
containing this identical Preamble. The l^ody of the Constitu- 
tion had been adopted ])y the committee of the whole, before the ar- 
rival of Mr. Jefferson's plan : his Preamble, however, was prefixed 
to the instrument ; and some of the modifications proposed by him, 
introduced into the body of it.' 

The Constitution was adopted unanimously, on the 29th of 
June, 1776 ; and to that date may be referred the first establish- 
ment of self-government, l)y a written compact, in the western con- 
tinent, and probably in the whole Avorld. It formed the model for 
all the other States, as they successively recovered themselves from 
the parent monarchy ; and they were not slow in doing this. The 
example of Virginia was soon followed by the other Provinces, and 
the popular administrations succeeded to the regal, with astonishing 
rapidity. 

The part which Mr. Jeflerson took in this important transaction, 
cannot be sufficiently admired. It happened on the eve of the mo- 
mentous proceedings upon Independence, in Congress ; and in the 
midst of the busy preparation for that all-absorbing question. But 
tlie freedom and prosperity of his native State lay nearest to his 
heart. His watchful spirit hovered over her, with the protecting care 



* Tlie historian hero alludes to Mr. Wythe, and cites his answer to Mr. Jef- 
ferson, as follows : 

" VVlien I came here the plan of Government had been committed to the 
whole House. To those who had the chief hand in forming it, the one you put 
into my hands was shewn. Two or three parts of this, were, with little altera- 
tion, inserted in that ; but such was the impatience of sitting long enough to 
discuss several important points in which they differ, and so many other mat- 
ters were necessarily to be dispatched before the adjournment, that I was per- 
suaded the revision of a subject the members seemed tired of, would at that 
time have been unsuccessfully proposed. — The system agreed to, in my opinion^ 
requires reformation. In October, I hope you will effect it." 

t Page 196, Note. 



OP THOMAS JEFFERSON. 99 

of a tutelary genius. When, therefore, he saw her righting herself 
into the noble attitude of Independence, he strove to reach forth 
a helping arm and to throw the whole weight which his situation 
allowed him to command, into that scale of her power which should 
embody the greatest amount of repubhcanism in the operation. 
He saw, that the step she was then about to take, would decide ev- 
erlastingly her political course ; perhaps, too, the everlasting political 
course of the whole country. He was anxious, therefore, that it 
should partake as thoroughly of the popular spirit, as the state of 
public opinion would admit. The system which was adopted, was 
more aristocratical in its features, than the one which he proposed, 
and less perfect as a whole. But the merits of his plan will be 
more particularly discussed in a future chapter. Meanwhile, the 
following paragraph, in a letter to Major John Caitwright, in 1824, 
will suffice to show the general light in which he viewed the first 
republican charter, as well as the extent to which he carried his de- 
mocratic theory, in 1776. 

" Virginia, of which I am myself a native and resident, was not 
only the first of the States, but, I beheve I may say, the first of the 
nations of the earth, which assembled its wise men peaceably to- 
gether, to form a fundamental constitution, to commit it to writing, 
and place it among their archives, where every one should be free 
to appeal to its text. But this act was very imperfect. The other 
States, as they proceeded successfully to the same work, made suc- 
cessive improvements ; and several of them, still further corrected by 
experience, have, by conventions, still further amended their first 
forms. My own State has gone on so far with its jpremiere 
ehauche; but it is now proposing to call a convention for amend- 
ment. Among the other improvements, 1 hope they will adopt the 
subdivision of our counties into wards. The former may be estima- 
ted at an average of twenty-four miles square ; the latter should be 
about six miles square each, and would answer to the hundi-eds of 
your Saxon Alfred. In each of these might be, 1, An elementary 
school. 2. A company of militia, with its officers. 3. A justice of 
the peace and constable. 4. Each ward should take cai"e of their 
own poor. 5. Their own roads. 6. Their oAvn police. 7. Elect 
witliin themselves one or more jurors to attend the courts of justice. 
And, 8. Give in at their Folk-house, their votes foF all functionaries 
reserved to their election. Each ward would thus be a small repub- 
lic within itself, and every man in the State would thus become an 
acting member of the common government, transacting in person a 
great portion of its rights and duties, subordinate indeed, yet impoi^ 
tant and entirely within his competence. The wit of man cannot 



100 LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

devise a more solid basis for a free, durable, and well-administered 
Repaljlic." 

This was the remarkable extent to which Mr. Jefferson carried 
his theory of representative government at the first 'leap.' That 
he had imbibed these doctrines so early as '76, is evident ; for in his 
celebrated Revisal of the Laws of Virginia, commenced in the au- 
tumn of that year, he introduced a proposition for dividing the whole 
State into wards of six miles square, and for imparting to each, 
those identical portions of self-government above described. This 
curious fact will be more fuUy developed in the sequel. 

But this Convention aspired to a higher agency in directing the 
course of the Revolution. The same hour which gave birth to the 
proposition for establishing the new government, was signalized by 
the adoption of a recommendation, which pointed directly to the 
grand object of the struggle. The resolution containing it, was 
conceived in the following terms : 

"Resolved, unanimousli/, That the Delegates appointed to rep- 
resent this Colony in General Congress, be instructed to propose to 
that respectable body, to declare the United Colonies free 
AND INDEPENDENT States, absolvcd from all allegiance to, or de- 
pendance upon, the Crown or Parliament of Great Britain ; and 
that they give the assent of this Colony to such declaration, and to 
whatever measures may l^e thought proper and necessary by the 
Congress, for forming foreign alliances, and a confederation of 
THE Colonies, at such time, and in the manner, as to them shall 
seem Isest. Provided, that the power of forming government for, 
and the regulation of, the internal concerns of each Colony, be left 
to the respective Colonial Legislatures." 

The intelligence of this auspicious denouement, was received 
with a general feehng of approbation throughout the country, and in 
many places, with the liveliest demonstrations of joy. It was the 
signal for corresponding manifestations in most of the Provincial 
Legislatures, and in the course of a short period, a great majority of 
the Representatives yi Congress, were instructed to the same efTect. 
The burning theme of Independence was thus echoed and re-echo- 
ed from one Colony to another, and thundered upon the attention of 
the people, in unremitting peals. 

At this propitious moment, the gallant author of ' Common Sense' 
lighted his fiercest torch, and discharged a tremendous battery into 
the public mind ; animating the torpid reins of the loyahst, and 
instilling new phrensy into the aching bosom of the patriot. The 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 101 

«iflbi'ts of this unrivaled propagandist, were powerfully reinforced 
by those solid appeals to the reason and conscience, which were 
propounded to individual characters of weight, in different sections, 
through the dignified medium of Private Correspondence. This 
was the great political lever of Mr. Jefferson ; and upon this, as upon 
all other occasions, its power, in application to the moral, was like that 
of Archimedes to the material, world. These active moral caus- 
<is, mingling in confluence, poured a steady stream of excitement 
into the popular mind. The brilliant success of the American arms, 
in several important engagements, strengthened the general procliv- 
ity ; and the unmitigable rigor of the parent despotism, pursuing 
with unbridled ferocity, the destruction of her devoted offspring, 
swelled the torrent of irritation and of generous enthusiasm, to its 
ultimatum. 

In Congress also, at this period. May, '76, corresponding advances 
had been made m pohtical sentiment. The doctrines of Mr. Jefier- 
son were now clearly in the ascendant. It was no longer heresj^ to 
maintain the sovereignty of the people, and the co-ordinate sove- 
reignty of the States with Great Britain, in all matters of govern- 
ment, external as well as internal ; at least, it was not so in prac- 
tice, however it may have been in the abstract. The revolution 
party were predominant. A poM^erfid minority, however, still exis- 
ted, who clung with filial suppliancy to the supposed ties, which 
bound them in conscience and in honor, to the parent government. 
But, happily, tliis party were terribly shaken in their faith, by a re- 
cent act of Parliament, which declared the Colonies in a State of 
rebellion, and out of the protection oi" the British Crown. They 
reasoned from this, that as protection and dependence were recipro- 
cal, the one having ceased, the othe^' might also ; and that there- 
fore. Great Britain herself had actually declared them independent ! 
This was a sound conclusion ; p^d who can sufficiently admire the 
stupendous folly of the British Parliament ? Still, however, cau- 
tious approaches to the last extremities, were requisite, to preserve the 
customary unanimity. 

A preparatory step was accordingly taken by the Patriots, which 
discovered great address. A resolution was proposed declaring, that 
' whereas the government of Great Britain had excluded the Uni- 
ted Colonies from the protectioti of the Crown, it was therefore 
irreconcilable to reason and good conscience, for the people to con 

10 



102 LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

tinue their allegiance to the government under that Crown ; and 
they accordingly recommended the several Colonies to establish 
independent govei^nments of their own.^ 

This resolution was adopted on the 15th of May ; and by a re- 
markable coincidence, the Convention of Virginia had, on the same 
day, adopted the resolution appointing a committee to prepare a 
declaration of rights and plan of government for that Colony. It 
is said, that Mr. Jefferson, being constantly apprised of the progress 
of the Convention, promoted this singular concurrence of parallel 
results, with a view to popular effect. Be this as it may, he was 
an ardent patron of the measure in Congress ; regarding it, as he 
did, the entering wedge of the grand proposition, which he throb- 
l^d with impatience to see carried. 

On the 28th of May, upon motion of Mr. Jefferson, Congress 
resolved, " that an animated Address be published, to impress the 
minds of the people with the necessity of now stepping forward to 
save their country, their freedom, and their property." Being ap- 
pointed chairman of the committee upon this resolution, he prepar- 
ed the address ; and an animated address it was ; conceived in 
his happiest manner, with a power of expression and of argument, 
which carried conviction and courage to the breast of every man. 
This was another ingenious stroke of policy, designed to prepare 
the popular mind for a favorable reception of the momentous decis- 
ion in reserve. 

The plot of the magnificent drama now began to thicken. The 
delegates from Virginia received their Independence instructions 
early in June, and immediately held a conference to arrange the 
preluninaries for acting uyon them, with all the solemnity which 
the nature of the occasion i^equired. Richard H. Lee, being the 
oldest in the delegation, and et^owed with extraordinary powers of 
eloquence, was designated to m«.ke the introductory motion, and 
the seventh of June was ordered as "the day. Accordingly, on that 
day he rose from his seat and moved, Oiat Congress should declare. 
' That these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free 
and independent States, that they are absolved from all allegi- 
ance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between 
them and the State of Great Britain, is, and ought to be, totally 
dissolved ; that measures should be immediately taken for procur- 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 103 

ing the assistance of foreign powers, and a Confederation be 
formed to bind the Colonies more closely together.' 

The House being obliged to attend at that time, to some other 
business, the proposition was deferred to the next day, when the 
members were ordered to attend punctually at ten o'clock. 

Saturday, June 8th, Congress proceeded to take the subject into 
consideration, and referred it to a Committee of the Whole, into 
which they immediately lesolved themselves, and passed that day 
and Monday, the iOth, in warm and vehement debates. 

The conflict was painful. The hardest metal of that hard race 
of legislators, was brought into collision. All the strong combat- 
ants in that giant Areopagus, the impetuous declaimer, and the 
astute logician, were marshaled in fearful array, and the most mo- 
metous question that ever agitated a political assembly, alternately 
oppugned and defended, with a power and pertinacity which set ima- 
gination at defiance. The heads only, of the arguments delivered 
on this interesting occasion, have been preserved — by one man alone, 
Mr. Jefferson ; and they owe their first disclosure to the world, to his 
pasthumous publication. They shall be given here in the summa- 
ry form, in which they were left by him. 

In opposition to the measure, it was argued by Dickinson and 
Wilson of Pennsylvania, Robert R. Livingston of New York, 
Edward Rutledge of South Carolina, and others — 

"That, though they were friends to the measures themselves, and 
saw the impossibihty that we should ever again be united with 
Great Britain, yet they were against adopting them at this time : 

" That the conduct we had formerly observed was wise and prop- 
er now, of deferring to take any capital step till the voice of the 
people drove us into it : 

" That they were our power, and without them our declarations 
could not be carried into effect : 

" That the people of the middle Colonies (Maryland, Delaware, 
Pennsylvania, the Jerseys and New York) were not yet ripe for 
bidding adieu to British connection, but that they were fast ripen- 
ing, and in a short time, would join in the general voice of Amer- 
ica ; 

" That the resolution, entered into by this House on the 15th of 
May, for suppressing the exercise of all powers derived from the 
Crown, had shown, by the ferment into which it had thrown these 
middle Colonies, that they had not yet accommodated their minds 
to a separation from the mother country : 

" That some of them had expressly forbidden their Delegates to 



104 LIFEj WRITINGS, AND OPINION'S 

consent to such a declaration, and others had given no instructiciisf, 
and consequently no powers to give such consent : 

" That if the Delegates of any particular Colony had no power to 
declare such Colony independent, certain they were, the others 
could not declare it for them ; the Colonies being as yet perfectly 
independent of each other : 

" That the Assembly of Pennsylvania was now sitting above 
stairs, their Convention would sit within a few days ; the convention 
of New York was now sitting ; and those of the Jerseys and Dela- 
ware comities would meet on the Monday following, and it Avas 
probable these bodies would take up the question of Independence, 
and w^ould declare to their Delegates the voice of their State : 

" That if such a declaration should now be agreed to, these Dele- 
gates must retire, and possibly their Colonies might secede from 
the Union : 

'• That such a secession would weaken us more than could l^e 
compensated by any foreign alliance : 

'■ That in the event of such a division, foreign powers would 
either refuse to join themselves to our fortunes, or, having us so 
much in their power as that desperate declaration would place us, 
they would insist on terms proportionably more hard and prejudi- 
cial : 

'• That we have little reason to expect an alliance with those to 
whom alone, as yet, we have cast our eyes : 

'• That France and Spain had reason to be jealous of that rising 
oower, which would one day certainly strip them of all their Amer- 
ican possessions : • • i i 

'^That it wasmorelikely they should form a connection with the 
British Court, who, if they should find themselves unable otherwise 
to extricate themselves from their difficulties, would agree to a par- 
tition of our territories, restoring Canada to France, and the Floi- 
idas to Spain, to accomplish for themselves a recovery of these Col- 
onies : 

" That it would not l)e long Ijefore we should receive certain m- 
formation of the disposition of the French Court, from the agent 
whom we had sent to Paris for that purpose : 

'• That if this disposition should l>e favorable, by waiting the event 
of the present campaign, wliich we all hoped would be successful, 
we should have reason to expect an aUiance on better terms : 

" That this would in fact work no delay of any effectual aid from 
sucli an ally, as, from the advance of the season and distance of our 
situation, it was impossible we could receive any assistance durmg 
this campaign : , 

" That it was prudent to fix among ourselves the terms on which 
we would form an alliance, before we declared we would form one 

at all events : t^ i • f t j 

" And that if these were agreed on, and our Declaration ot Inde- 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 105 

pendence ready, by the time our Ambassador should be prepared to 
sail, it would be as well, as to go into that Declaration at this day." 

In support of the proposition, it was urged by Mr. Jefferson, John 
and Samuel Adams, Lee, Wythe, and others — 

'' That no gentleman had argued against the policy or the right 
of separation from Britain, nor had supposed it possible we should 
<^ver renew our connection ; that they had only opposed its being 
now declared : 

" That the question was not whether, by a Declaration of Inde- 
pendence, we should make ourselves what we are not ; but whether 
we should declare a fact which already exists : 

'' That, as to the people or Parliament of England, we had always 
been independent of them, their restraints on our trade deriving effi- 
cacy from our acquiescence only, and not from any rights they pos- 
sessed of imposing them, and that so far, our connection had been 
federal only, and was now dissolved by the commencement of hos- 
tilities : 

" That, as to the King, we had been bound to him by allegiance, 
but that this bond Avas now dissolved by his assent to the late act of 
Parliament, by which he declares us out of his protection, and by 
his levying war on us, a fact which had long ago proved us out of 
his protection ; it being a certain position in law, that allegiance and 
protection are reciprocal, the one ceasing when the other is with- 
drawn : 

"That James the II. never declared the people of England out of 
his protection, yet his actions proved it and the Parhament declared it: 

" No Delegates then can be denied, or ever want, a power of de- 
claring an existent truth : 

'' That the Delegates from the Delaware counties having declar- 
ed their constituents ready to join, there are only two Colonies, Penn- 
sylvania and Maryland, whose Delegates are absolutely tied up. 
and that these had, by their instructions, only reserved a right of 
confirming or rejecting the measure : 

" That the instructions from Pennsylvania might be accounted 
for, from the times in which they were drawn, near a twelvemonth 
ago, since which the face of affairs has totally changed : 

" That within that time, it had become apparent that Britain was 
determined to accept nothing less than a carte-blanche, and that the 
King's answer to the Lord Mayor, Aldermen, and Common Coun- 
cil of London, which had come to hand four days ago, must have 
satisfied every one of this point : 

" That the people wait for us to lead the way : 

" That they are in favor of the measure, though the instructions 
given by some of their representatives are not : 

" That the voice of the representatives is not always consonanL 

10* 



106 LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

with the voice of the people, and that this is remarkably the case in 
these middle Colonies : 

"That the effect of the resolution of the 15th of May has proved 
this, which, raising the murmurs of some in the Colonies of Penn- 
sylvania and Maryland, called forth the opposing voice of the freer 
part of the people, and proved them to be the majority even in these 
Colonies : 

" That the backwardness of these two Colonies might be ascribed 
partly, to the influence of proprietary power and connections, and 
partly, to their having not yet been attacked by the enemy : 

" That these causes were not likely to be soon removed, as there 
seeiified no probability that the enemy would make either of these 
the seat of this summer's war : 

" That it would be vain to wait either weeks or months for perfect 
unanimity, since it was impossible that all men should ever become 
of one sentiment on any question : 

" That the conduct of some Colonies, from the beginning of this 
contest, had given reason to suspect it was their settled policy to 
k<;ep in the rear of the confederacy, that their particular prospect 
might be better, even in the worst event : 

•That, therefore, it was necessary for those Colonies, who had 
thrown themselves foivvard and hazarded all from the beginning, to 
come forward now also, and put all again to their own hazard : 

" That the history of the Dutcli Revolution, of whom three states 
only confederated at first, proved that a secession of some Colo- 
nies would not be so dangerous as some apprehended : 

" That a Declaration of Independence alone could render it con- 
sistent with European delicacy, for European powers to treat with 
us, or even to receive an Ambassador from us : 

" That tiU this, they would not receive our vessels into their ports, 
noF acknowledge the adjudications of our courts of admiralty to be 
legitimate, in cases of captiue of British vessels : 

" That though France and Spain may be jealous of our rising 
power, they must tliink it will be much more formidable with the 
addition of Great Britain ; and will therefore see it their irUerest to 
prevent a coalition ; but should they refuse, we shall be but where 
we are ; whereas without trying, we shall never know whether 
they will aid us or not : 

" That tlie present campaign may be unsuccessful, and therefore 
we had better propose an aUiance while our affaii's wear a hopeful 
aspect : 

" That to wait the event of this campaign will certainly work de • 
lay, Ijecause, during this summer, France may assist us effectually, 
by cutting off those supplies of provisions from England and Ireland, 
on which the enemy's armies here are to depend ; or by setting in 
motion the great power they have collected in the West Indies, and 
calling our enemy to the defence of the possessions they have there . 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 107 

" That it would be idle to lose time in settling the terms of alli- 
ance, till we had tirst determined we would enter into alliance : 

" That it is necessary to lose no time in opening a trade for our 
people, who will want clothes, and will want money too, for the pay- 
ment of taxes : 

'• And that the only misfortune is, that we did not enter into alli- 
ance with France six months sooner, as, besides opening her ports 
for the vent of our last year's produce, she might have marched an 
army into Germany, and prevented the petty Princes there, from sell- 
ing their unhappy subjects to subdue us." 

The tenor of these debates indicated such a strength of opposi- 
tion to the measure, that it was deemed impolitic to press it at this 
time. The Colonies of New- York, New- Jersey, Pennsylvania, 
Delaware, Maryland, and South Carolina, were not yet ' matured for 
falling from the parent stem ;' but as they were fast advancing to 
that state, it was thought most prudent to w^ait awhile for them. 
The final decision of the question was therefore postponed to the 
1st of July. But, that this might occasion as little delay as possi- 
ble, it was ordered that a committee be appointed to prepare a 
Declaration of Independence, to the intent of the motion. 
Mr. Jefferson having the highest number of votes, was placed at the 
head of this Committee ; the other members were John Adams, Dr. 
Franklin, Roger Sherman, and Robert R. Livingston. The Com- 
mittee met, and unanimously solicited Mr. Jefferson to prepare the 
draught of the Declaration, alone. He drew it ; but before submit- 
ting it to the Committee, he communicated it, separately, to Dr. 
Franklin and Mr. Adams, with a view to avail himself of the ben- 
efit of their criticisms. They criticised it, and suggested two or 
three alterations, merely verbal, intended to soften somewhat the 
original phraseology. The Committee unanimously approved it ; 
and on Friday, the 28th of June, he reported it to Congress, when 
it was read and ordered to lie on the table. 

On Monday, the first of July, agreeal^ly to assignment, the House 
resolved itself into a Committee of the Whole, and resumed the 
consideration of the preliminary motion. It was debated again 
through the day, and finally carried in the afiirraative, by the votes 
of New-Hampshire, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode-Island, New- 
Jersey, Maryland, Yii'ginia, North Carolina and Georgia. SoVvth 
Carolina and Pemrsylvania, voted against it. Delaware had but 

two members present, and they were divided. The Delegates from 



108 LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

New- York declared they were for it themselves, and were assure(f 
their constituents were for it ; but, that their instructions having been 
drawn near a twelvemonth before, when reconciliation was still tlie 
general object, they were enjoined by them to do nothing which 
should impede that object. They therefore, thought themselves not 
justifiable in voting on either side, and asked leave to withdraw from 
the question ; which was granted them. In this state of things, 
the Committee rose and reported their resolution to the House. Mr. 
Edward Rutledge, of South Carolina, then requested the determin- 
ation might be put off to the next day, as he believed his collegues, 
thougli they disapproved of the resolution, would then join in it for 
the sake of unanimity. The ultimate decision by the House, was 
accordingly postponed to the next day, July 2d, when it was again 
moved, and South Carolina concurred in voting for it. In the mean 
time, a third member had come post from the Delaware counties, 
and turned the vote of that Colony in favor of the resolution. Mem- 
bers of a different sentiment attending that morning, from Pennsyl- 
vania, her vote also was changed ; so that the whole twelve Colo- 
nies, who were authorised to vote at all, gave their voice for it ; 
and within a few days, July 9th, the Convention of New- York ap- 
proved of it, and thus supplied the void occasioned by the Avith- 
drawal of her Delegates from the question. 

It should be observed that these oscillatory proceedings and final 
vote, were upon the original motion, to declare the Colonies inde- 
pendent. 

Congress proceeded the same day, July 2d, to consider the Dec- 
laration of Independence, which had been reported the 28th of 
June, and ordered to lie on the table. The debates were again re- 
newed with great violence — greater than before. Tremendous was 
the ordeal through which the title-deed of our liberties, perfect as it 
had issued from the hands of its great artificer, was destined to pass. 
Inch by inch, was its progress through the House disputed. Ev- 
ery dictum of peculiar political force, (and it was crowded with 
such,) and almost every sentence, were made a subject of acrimoni- 
ous animadversion, by the anti-revolutionists. On the other hand, 
the champions of Independence contended, with the constancy of 
martyrs, for every tenet and every word of the precious gospel of 
their faith. Among the latter class, the Author of the Declaration 
himself, has assigned to John Adams the pre-eminent station ef 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 109 

jtrimus intei' pares. Thirty -seven years afterwards, he declared 
that "Mr. Adams was the pillar of its support on the floor of Con- 
gress, its ablest advocate and defender against the multifarious as- 
saults it encountered." At another time, he said " John Adams 
Wcis our Colossus on the floor. Not graceful, not elegant, not al- 
ways fluent in his public addresses, he yet came out with a power, 
both of thought and of expression, which moved us from our seats.'' 
The grandeur, and the terror of that scene transcend the boundaries 
of conception. On the result of their dehl^erations, hung the fate 
of America, and the pohtical salvation of the world. Their coun • 
oils, their speeches, their emotions, their countenances, have been 
celebrated, in ceaseless multiplication, in prose and in verse, from 
tliat day to the present ; but the representations have fallen, and 
must forever fall, infinitely short of the realities. Through the long, 
doubtful, and incessant conflict, .mi Mr. JeflTerson, a silent, though 
not an unimpassioned, witness of the furnace of disquisition, which 
was trying the product of his own mind. To a man of ordinary 
sensibilities, the spectacle must have been painful ; to him it was 
peculiarly so.* 

The debates were continued with vmremitting heat, through the 
2d, 3d, and 4th days of July, till on the evening of the last, — the 
most important day, politically speaking, that the world ever saw,— • 



* The ready and good-humored Dr. Franklin, silting near Mr. Jefferson, and 
seeing him agonisinjr under the severity of the strictures, related in his ear, by y 
way of comfort, the following anecdote : / 

"■ I have made it a rule, whenever it is in my power, to avoid becoming the / 
draughtsman of papers to be reviewed by a public body. I took my lesson from ; 
an incident which I will relate to you. When I was a journeymon printer, one ^v,.^ 
of my companions, an a])prentice hatter, having served out his time, was about ■ 

to open a shop for himself. His first concern was to have a handsome sign- 
board, with a proper inscription. He composed it in these words : " John 
Thompson, iif«//er, makes and sells hats for rradi/ monetj,':'' w\ih the figure of the 
hat subjoined But he thought he would submit it to his friends for their amend- 
ments. The first he showed it to, thought the word '■ hat/er,' tautologous. be- 
cause followed by the woids ^77iakes hals,^ which shows he was a hatter. It 
was struck out. The next observed, that the word ' makes,' might as well be 
omitted, becaiise his customers would not care who made the hats ; if good, and 
to their minds, they would buy, by whomsoever made. He stiuck it out. A 
third said he thought the words'/or 7-eadi/ money' were useless, as it was not 
tlie custom of the place to sell on credit : every one who purchased expected to 
pay. They v;ere parted with, and the inscription now stood, 'John Thompson, 
sells hats.' ' Sells hats ." says his next friend ; ' why, nobody will expect you to 
give them away. What, then, is the use of the word .'' It was stricken out; 
and ^ hats' followed, the rather, as there was one painted on the board ; so his 
inscription was reduced, ultimately, to 'John Thompson,' with the figure of 
Ihe hat subjoined." 



^ 10 LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

they were brought to a close. The principle of unanimity finalfr 
preponderated ; and reciprocal concessions, sufficient to unite all on 
the solid ground of the main purpose, were generously laid at its feet. 
Some of the most splendid specifications, however, in the American 
Charter, were surrendered, in the spirit of compromise. On some of 
these, too, it is well known the Author set the highest value, as re- 
cognising principles to which he was enthusiastically partial, and 
which were almost peculiar to him. His scorching malediction 
against the traffickers in human blood, is pointedly among the lat- 
ter. The hght in which he viewed these depradations upon the 
original, may be gathered from the following memorandum of the 
transaction ; in which, too, he betrays a fact in relation to New 
England, that is not generally known. 

" The pusillanimous idea that we had friends in England worth 
keeping terms with, still haunted the minds of many. For thi^ 
reason, those passages which conveyed censures on the people of 
England, were struck out, lest they should give them offence. The 
clause too, reprobating the enslaving the inhabitants of Africa, was 
struck out, in complaisance to South Carolina and Georgia, wlio 
had never attempted to restrain the importation of slaves, and who. 
on the contrary, still wished to continue it. Our northern breth- 
ren also, I believe, felt a little tender under those censures : 
for thong li the people had very feiv slaves themselves, yet they 
had been pretty considerable carriers of them to othei^sJ'' 

For the purpose of comparing the original, with the amended, 
form, the Declaration will be presented, as it came from the hands 
of the Author. The parts stricken out by Congi'ess are printed 
in Italics, and inclosed in brackets ; and those inserted by them 
are placed in the margin. The sentiments of men are known by 
what they reject, as well as by what they receive, and the compar- 
ison, in the present case, will discover corroborative proof of the 
singular forwardness of one mind, on certain great points of prin- 
ciple. 

A Declaration by the Representatives of the United States of 
America, in General Congress assembled. 

When, in the course of human events, it becomes ne- 
cessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which 
have connected them with another, and to assume among 
the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to 
which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle 
them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind r^ 



OP THOMAS JEFFERSON. 



Ill 



certain 



<^xiiies, that they should declare the causes which impel 
tiiem to the separation. 

We hold these truths to be self-evident : that all men 
are created equal ; that they are endowed by their Crea- 
tor with [inherent and] inalienable rights ; that among 
these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness ; that 
to secure these rights, governments are instituted among 
men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the 
governed ; that whenever any form of government be- 
comes destructive of these ends, it is the right of a peo- 
ple to alter or abolish it, and to institute new government, 
laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing 
its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely 
to effect their safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, 
will dictate that governments long established should not 
be changed for light and transient causes ; and according- 
ly all experience hath shown that mankind are more 
disposed to suffer while evils are sufferable, than to right 
themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are 
accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usur- 
pations [begun at a distinguished period and] pursu- 
ing invariably the same object, evinces a design to reduce 
ihem under absolute despotism, it Is their right, it is their 
duty to throw off such government, and to provide new 
guards for their future security. Such has been the patient 
sufferance of the Colonies ; and such is now the necessi- 
ty which constrains them to . [expunge] their former sys- 
tems of government. The history of the present King 
of Great Britain is a history of [unremitting] injuries repeated 
and usurpations, [among which appears no solitary 
fact to contradict the uniform tenor of the rest^ hut all all having- 
have] in direct object the establishment of an absolute 
tyranny over these States. To prove this, let facts \y& 
submitted to a candid world [for the truth of which ive 
pledge a faith yet unsullied by falsehood.] 

He has refused his assent to laws the most wholesome 
and necessary for the public good. 

He has forbidden his governors to pass laws of imme- 
diate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their 
operation till his assent should be obtained ; and, when 
so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them. 
He has refused to pass other laws for the accommoda- 
tion of large districts of people, unless those people would 
xelinquish the right of representation in the legislature, a 
right inestimable to them, and formidable to tyrants only. 
He has called together legislative bodies at places un- 
usual, uncomfortable and distant from the depository of 



alter 



112 



LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 



obstructed 
by 



their public records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them 
into compliance with his measures. 

He has dissolved representative Houses repeatedly [and 
co7itinually\ for opposing with manly firmness his inva- 
sions on the rights of the people. 

He has refused for a long time after such dissolutions 
to cause others to be elected, whereby the legislative pow- 
ers, incapable of annihilation, have returned to the peo- 
ple at large for their exercise, the State remaining, in the 
mean time, exposed to all the dangers of invasion from 
without and convulsions within. 

He has endeavored to prevent the population of these 
States ; for that purpose obstructing the laws for natural • 
ization of foreigners, refusing to pass others to encourage 
their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new 
appropriations of lands. 

He has [suffered] the administration of justice [total- 
ly to cease in some of these States] refusing his assent 
to laws for establishing judiciary powers. 

He has made [our] judges dependant on his will alone 
for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and pay- 
ment of their salaries. 

He has erected a multitude of new offices, [by a self 
assumed power] and sent hither swarms of new officers 
to harass otn" people, and eat otit their substance. 

He has kept among us in times of peace standing ar- 
mies [and ships of ivar] without the consent of our le- 
gislatures. 

He lias affected to render the military independent of- 
and superior to, the civil power. 

He has combined with others to subject us to a juris- 
diction foreign to our constitutions and unacknowledged 
by our laws, giving his assent to their acts of pretended 
legislation for quartering large bodies of armed troops 
among us ; for protecting them by a mock trial from pun- 
ishment for any murders which they should commit on 
the inhabitants of these States ; for cutting off our trade 
with all parts of the world ; for imposing taxes on us 
without our consent ; for depriving us [ ] of the benefits 
of trial by jury ; for transpoting us be3/^ond seas to be 
tried for pretended offences ; for abolishing the fiee sys- 
tem of English laws in a neighboring Province, estab- 
lishing therein an arbitrary government, and enlarging 
its botmdaries, so as to render it at once an example and 
fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule in- 
colonies to these [states] ; for taking away our charters, abolish- 
ing our most valuable laws, and altering fundamentally 



in many 
cases 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 113 

(he forms of our governments ; for suspending our own 
legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with pow- 
er to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever. by declaring 

He has abdicated government here \vnthdrau'ing "^ «"* ?^ l^Js 
his governors, and declaring ic^ out of his o^^e^-*- ^ag^nff^war 
ance and jM'ofection.] against us 

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt 
our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people. 

He is at this time transporting large armies of for- 
eign mercenaries to complete the works of death, des- 
olation, and tyranny already begun with circumstan- 
ces of cruelty and perfid}^ [ ] unworthy the head of a scarcely par- 
civihzed nation. mlrs'r1)irbl^r! 

He has constrained our fellow citizens taken captive ous ages and 
on the high seas to bear arms against their country, to totally 
become the executioners of their friends and brethren, 
or to fall themselves by their hands. 

He has [ ] endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants excited do- 
of our frontiers the merciless Indian Savages, whose "^^stic insur- 
known rule of warfare is an undistinguished destruc- ^^' ^^ ^^^ 
tion of all ages, sexes and conditions [of existence.] has 

[He has incited treasonable insurrections of onr 
fellow citizens, ivith the allurements of forfeiture 
and confscation of our property. 

He has urged cruel ivar against human nature 
itself violating its most sacred rights of life and lib- 
erty in the persons of a distant jjeople who never of- 
fended him, captivating and carrying them into 
slavery in another hemisphere, or to incur miserable 
death in their transportation thither. This pirati- 
cal loarfare, the opprobium of infidel poivers, is 
the warfare of the christian ki7ig of Great Brit- 
ain. Determined to keep ojten a market where men 
should be bought and sold, he has prostituted his neg- 
ative for suppressing every legislative attempt to pro- 
hibit or to restrain this execrable coinmerce. And that 
this assemblage of horrors inight want no fact of dis- 
tinguished die, he is now exciting those very people 
to rise in arms among us, and to purchase that lib- 
erty of ichich he has deprived them, by murderiyig 
the people on whom he also obtruded them : thus 
paying off former crimes committed against the 
liberties of one people with crimes which he urges 
them to commit against the lives of another?^ 

In every stage of these oppressions we have petition- 
ed for redress in the most humble terms : our repeated 
petitions have been answered only by repeated injuries. 

A prince whose character is thus marked by every 
act which may define a tyrant is unfit to be the ruler of 

11 



114 LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

free a [ ] people [who mean to be free. Future ages will 

scarcely believe that the hardiness of one man ad- 
ventured, within the short compass of twelve years 
only, to lay a foundation so broad and so nndis- 
guisedfor tyranny over a people fostered andfi^ed 
in jnincijiles of freedom.^ 

Nor have we been wanting in attentions to our 
British brethren. We have warned them from time 
an unwarrant- to time of attempts by their legislature to extend [a] 
able jurisdiction over \tliese our states.] We have reminded 
them of the circumstances of our emigration and settle- 
ment here [no one of ichich could warrant so strange 
a pretension : that these were effected at the expense 
of our oicn blood and treasure, unassisted by the 
wealth or the strength of Great Britain : that in 
constituting indeed our several for^ns of government., 
we had adopted one common king, thereby laying a 
fou7idatio7i for perpetual league and amity with 
them : but that submission to their 2)arliament was- 
no part of our constitution, nor ever in idea, if his- 
liave tory may be credited: and^ we [ ] appealed to their 

and we have native justice and magnanimity \as well as to] the 
conjured them j^gg ^^ ^^j. common kindred to disavow these usurpa- 
tions which [icere likely to] interrupt our connection 
would inevita- j^^^j correspondence. They too have been deaf to the 
^ voice of justice and of consanguinity, [and ichen oc- 

casions have been given them, by the regidar course 
of their laws, of removing from their councils the 
disturbers of our harmony, they have, by their free 
election, re-established them in jjoiver. At this very 
time too, they are permitting their chief magistrate 
to send over not only soldiers of our coonmon blood, 
but Scotch and foreign mercenaries to invade arid 
destroy us. These facts have given the last stab 
to agonizing affection, and inanly spirit bids us to 
renounce for ever these unfeeling brethren.. We 
onust endeavor to forget our former love for them, 
and hold them as we hold the rest of mankind, en- 
emies in war, in jjeace friends. We might have 
been a- free and a great people together ; but a com- 
munication of grandeur and of freedom, it seems, 
is below their dignity. Be it so, since they will 
have it. The road to happiness and to glory is 
We must open to us too. We ivill tread it apart from them, 
therefore an(£] acquiesce in the necessity which denounces our 
and hold them [ctemaV] separation [ ] ! 

as we hold the 
rest of man- 
kind, enemies 

in war, in ■; _ ^ 

peace, friends. ■ .. 



OP THOMAS JEFFERSON. 115 

We therefore the representatives of the 
United States of America in General Con- appealing to the supreme 
g,ess assembled, [ ] do in the name, and by >t„°/, ofVriS 'SU™ 
the authority of the good people of these 

[states reject and renounce all allegiance colonies, solemnly publish 
and subjection to the kings of Great Brit- and declare, that these uni- 
ain and all others who may /«e/-e«/^er ^^d colonies are, and of 
, . , ,, , , ^y -' , rijSfht ouorht to be, free and 

claim by, through, or under them ; we lit- independent states; that 
terly dissolve all political connection which they are absolved from all 
may heretofore have subsisted betioeen us allegiance to the British 
i .1 J ;• ± f r< jcrown, and that all politi- 

and the people or parliament of Great ^^^ connection between 
Britain : and finally we do assert and de- them and the state of Great 
dare these colonies to be free and indepen- Britain is, and ought to be, 
dent states,] and that as free and indepen- totally dissolved ; 
dent states, they have full power to levy war, 
conclude peace, contract alliances, establish 
commerce, and do all other acts and things 
which independent states may of right do. 

And for the support of this declaration, [ ] with a firm reliance on 
we mutually pledge to each other our lives, providence*^'"" ° 
our fortunes, and our sacred honor. 

The world has long since passed judgment upon the relative mer- 
its of these two forms of the American Declaration, and awarded the 
palm of pre-eminence to the primitive one. The amendments ob- 
literated some of its boldest and brightest features ; impaired the 
beauty and force of others ; and softened the general tone of the 
whole instrument. 

The Declaration thus amended in Committee of the Whole, was 
reported to the House on the 4th of July, agreed to, and signed by 
every member present, except Mr. Dickinson. On the 19th of 
July, it was ordered to l3e engrossed on parchment ; and on the 2d 
of August, the engrossed copy, after being compared at the table 
with the original, was ordered to be signed by every member. 

On the same day that Independence was declared, Mr. Jefferson 
was appointed oner of a committee of three, to devise an appropriate 
Coat of Arms for the republic of the ' United States of America.' 

The Declaration was received by the people with unbounded ad- 
miration and joy. On the 8th of July it was promulgated, with 
great solemnity, at Pliiladelphia, and saluted by the assembled mul- 
titude, with peals on peals of acclammation. On the 11th it was 
published in New- York, and proclaimed before the American Ar- 
ray, which, at that time, was assembled in the vicinity, with all the 



116 LIFEj WRITINGS. AND OPINIONS 

pomp and circumstance of a military pageant. It was received \\ith 
delirious exultation by the collected chivalry of the Revolution. 
They filled the air with their shouts, and shook the earth with the 
thunders of their artillery. In Boston, the popular transports were 
unparalleled. The national manifesto was proclaimed from the 
balcony of the Capitol, in the presence of all the authorities, civil 
and military, and of an innumerable concourse of people. An im- 
mense banquet was prepared, at which the authorities, and all the 
principal citizens attended, and drank toasts expressive of enthusi- 
astic veneration for liberty, and of unmingled detestation of tyrants. 
The rejoicings were continued through the night, and every ensign 
of royalty, that adorned either the public or private edifice, was de- 
molished before mortiing. 

Similar demonstrations of patriotic enthusiasm^ crov/ned the re- 
ception of the Declaration in all the cities and chief towns of the 
continent. Its progress through the land was hke the triumpha! 
procession of a mighty deliverer. 

In Virginia, the annunciation was greeted with graver tokens of 
public felicitation. The Convention decreed, that the name of the 
King should be expunged fiom the liturgy of the established reli- 
gion. All the remaining emblems of royal authority, were super- 
seded by appropriate representatives of the new order of things. A 
new Coat of Arms for the Commonwealth, was immediately order- 
ed. Several devices were proposed. One by Dr. Franklin, with 
the motto, " Rebellion to Tyrants, m obedience to God."' Another 
by Mr. JeflTerson, with the characteristic motto, " Re.r est qui re- 
gem lion hahetr And another by Mr. Wythe, which Avas adopt • 
ed. It represented Virtue as the tutelary Genius of the Common- 
wealth, robed in the drapery of an Amazon, resting one hand upon 
a spear, and holding with the other a sword, trampling upon Tyran- 
ny, personified by a prostrate man, with a crown fallen from his 
head, bearing in one hand a broken chain, and in the other a 
scourge. Around the exergon were inscribed, at the top, Virginia, 
and underneath, the words, &ic semper iyrannis. On the re- 
verse, was charactered a group of figures ; Lihertas in the centre, 
with her wand and cap ; on one side Ceres, with her horn of plenty 
in the right hand, and a sheaf of wheat in the left ; on the other 
side appeared Eternity, with the Globe and Phoenix. Around the 
exergon were inscribed these words, Devs nobis haec otia fecit. 



OF TIIOMAS JEFFERSON". 117 

Such were some of the immediate influences of this immortal 
State-paper. But who shall describe its ulterior influences, physi- 
cal, moral, and political, upon America, and itpon all the feiloAv na- 
tions of the earth ? Those which liave already transpired, have 
been stupendous ; some benificent, others calamitous, yet all the 
harbingers of final glory : and those which have yet to transpire, 
the human mind can scarcely exaggerate to its vision. Volumes 
might be written in illustrating the agency of this teeming record, 
in advancmg the Avell-being of nations, and augmenting the amount 
of human happiness. That portion of its blessings, which de- 
scended to its immediate inheritors, or which is possessed by th© 
present inhabitants of the globe, comprises but a partial account in 
the estimate. It is the sun of the political universe. It is the focus 
of revolutionary light and heat, from which have issued those kin- 
dred rays and impulses, which have warmed, and enlightened, and 
agitated, and plunged into kindred convulsions, for the recovery of 
their just rights, the oppressed, king-bestridden^ and law-ridden peo 
pie of other countries, in almost every part of the earth. It laid the 
foundation for the first great and successful experiment of free gov- 
ernment ; of a government, whose career of success has been so 
unexampled, as to have already secured to it a pre-eminence of 
character among the Powers of the earth ; and whose greatness in 
the scale of empire, will one day enable it, if it should so please, to 
dictate to all other governments. The effects of this potent exam- 
ple, were soon visible, in that tremendous struggle for political re- 
formation, which shook to its centre the gigantic empire of France,. 
— in those less formidable ones, which more recently, and at fitful 
intervals, have shaken the whole continent of South America, — 
and in that steady and peaceable process of regeneration, which at 
this moment, is undermining the strong pillars of that Power, from 
which was hewn the first member in the sisterhood of Free States^ 
The principles of the Declaration of Independence, have occasion- 
ed this great and growing change in the political destinies of the 
world. The knowledge of that renowned charter has reared, and 
is fast rearing, disciples to its master, among the darkest portions of 
civilized humanity. It has been heard and felt, wherever the art of 
printing has communicated it to the mind of man ; nor will the pe- 
riod arrive when it shall cease to be felt and feared, until the last 

11* 



118 LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS' 

tyrant shall have been tumbled from his throne, and the last throne 
shivered, by the lightning of its power. 

The Author of the Declaration himself, was not unconscious of 
the amazing consequences which would flow from it, when thus 
ushered before the world, as the simultaneous fiat of the whole peo- 
ple. On the contrary, they formed the theme of his incessant ima- 
ginings, and of his proudest prognostications. The emancipation 
of the whole family of nations, as the ultimate result, was the im- 
movable conviction of his mind. It was in unison with the reve- 
ries of his early youth ; and experience but confirmed him in the an- 
imating presentiment. Stirring effusions upon this topic, abound in 
his private memoranda, and familiar coiTespondence with his 
friends. Speaking of the French Revolution, as the first link in the 
chain of great consequences, he says, in his notes upon that ill-star- 
red drama : 

"As yet, we are but in the first chapter of its history. The ap- 
peal to the rights of man, which had been made in the United 
Btates, was taken up by France, first of the European nations. 
From her the spirit has spread over those of the South. The ty- 
rants of the North have allied indeed against it ; but it is irresisti- 
ble. Their opposition will only multiply its millions of human vic- 
tims ; their owu satellites will catch it, and the condition of man will 
be finally and greatly meliorated. This is a wonderful instance of 
great events from small causes. So inscrutable is the arrangement 
of causes and consequences in this world, that a two-penny duty on 
tea, unjustly imposed in a sequestered part of it, changes the condi- 
tion of all its inhabitants." 

Again, in a letter to John Adams, in 1823, the kindhng prophe- 
cy is pursued, with the eloquence and the assurance, seemingly, of 
CDnscious inspiration. 

" The generation which commences a revolution rarely completer 
i(. Haliituated from their infancy to passive suljmission of body and 
mind to their kings and priests, they are not qualified, when called 
ou, to think and provide for themselves ; and their inexperience, their 
ignorance and bigotry, make them instruments often, in the hands 
of the Bonapartes and Iturbides, to defeat their own rights and pur- 
poses. This is the present situation of Europe and Spanish Amer- 
ica. But it is not desperate. The light which has been shed on 
mankind by the art of printing, has eminently changed the condi- 
tion of the world. As yet, that light has dawned on the middling 
only of the men in Europe. The kings and the rabble, of 
ignorance, have not yet received its rays : but it continues to 




OP THOMAS JEFFERSON. 119 

spread, and while printing is preserved, it can no more recede than 
the sun return on his course. A first attempt to recover the right of 
self-government may fail, so may a second, a third, &c. But as a 
younger and more instructed race comes on, the sentiment becomes 
more and more intuitive, and a fourth, a fifth, or some suljsequent 
one of the ever-renewed attempts will ultimately succeed. In 
France, the first effort was defeated by Roliespierre, the second by 
Bonaparte, the third l^y Louis XVIII., and his holy allies ; another is 
yet to come, and all Europe, Russia excepted, has caught the spirit ; 
and all will attain representative government, more or less perfect. 
This is now well understood to be a necessary check on Kings', 
whom they will probably think it more prudent to chain and tame, 
than to exterminate. To attain all this, however, rivers of blood 
must yet flow, and years of desolation pass over ; yet the object is 
worth rivers of blood, and years of desolation. For what inherit- / 
ance so valuable, can man leave to his posterity ? The spirit of the^ 
Spaniard, and his deadly and eternal hatred to a Frenchman, gives 
me much confidence that he will never submit, iDut finally defeat- 
this atrocious violation of the laws of God and man, under which 
he is suffering ; and the wisdom and firmness of the Cortes, afford 
reasonable hope, that that nation will settle down in a temperate 
representative government, with an executive properly sulwrdina- 
ted to that. Portugal, Italy, Prussia, Germany, Gieece, will fol- 
low suit. You and I shall look down from another world on these 
glorious achievments to man, which will add to the joys even of 
heaven." 

Such are the ulterior tendencies and probable results of this stu- 
pendous Act. SuflScient has already elapsed, to demonstrate, that 
the Author w^as scarcely more happy in originating its principles, 
than in predicting it glorious consequences. The ' achievments' of 
the last twelvemonth, would 'add to the joys of heaven,' should his 
spirit continue its cognizance of the scene of its continued l)enefi- 
cence. 

But aside from its magnificent results, immediate and remote, 
past and prospective, the Declaration itself is a production of the 
highest order of merit. Of its bold, dignified, and comprehensive 
diction, its vigour and condensation of thought, its vivid and imjDet- 
uous recital of wrongs, and its solemn and masculine reclamations 
of right, it would be superfluous to speak. These topics have al- 
ready exhausted, a thousand times over, the very fountains of eulogy. 
Its great and distinguishing excellence lies in its j^olitical churac- 
ter ; and in order to put a just estimate upon its merits in this re- 
8pect, it is necessary to travel back to the period when it was pro- 



120 LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

mulgated. Political philosophy was then unborn. In the wide 
range of speculative disquisition, no writer had advanced to the 
threshold of the true economy of government. iVll was compara- 
tive gloom and barbarism. The doctrine of the divine right of 
Kings, and of the necessity of passive submission to their control, 
was the universally accredited theory. Fatalism in politics was as 
predominant and unquestioned, as was the dogma of papal infalli- 
bility, before the Reformation ; and it was deemed as impious to 
consult reason in reference to the one, as the other. Governments 
v/ere considered as instituted for the benefit of the governing few ; 
and the people as mere instruments in their hands, and for their 
aggrandizement. Popular rights was a term not comprehended in 
the political vocabularies of that day. All that the people enjoyed 
they were supposed to hold by virtue of concession from the au- 
thorities ordained by God to rule over them. Isolated writers in 
France and England, had indeed broached some substantial im- 
provements upon the estalalished system ; but their innovations 
were cautious and comparatively superficial. The reformation of 
the mass of heresies and vagaries, was reserved for the great 
Ameiican Sage. His antecedent writings had given the world a 
foretaste of his principles and his power ; but the occasion had not 
arrived, which was to quahfy them to make head against the op- 
posing torrent. His Declaration, therefore, establishes the era 
in history, of the character which really belonged to him at a much 
anterior date. By the extraordinary circumstances which called it 
into existence, he was enabled to usher his principles upon the at- 
tention of mankind, with sucii resistless eclat, as to surmount in- 
stantaneously, the impediments, which, in the ordinary course of 
things, centuries could not have dissipated. He rode into the criti- 
cal station of a radical political reformer, upon the ovenvhelming tide 
of popular opinion. But even then, nine-tenths of the moral and 
physical power of the world, was in the opposite scale ; and the en- 
terprise was a hazardous one. Local circumstances, however, overbal • 
anced the vast disproportion of these forces. The isolated position 
of the scene of opemtion, disjoined from the rest of the world by 
a wide expanse of ocean, rescued the experiment from the crushing 
influence of the Mammoths and Leviathans of the East. Success 
attended this masterly political effort ; and its Author became the 
founder of a new school in the ethics of government. The prin- 



OF THOMAS JEPFERSOK". 



121 



ciples of this school have already regenerated the condition of one 
hemisphere, and v.-ill ultimately dictate to the civilized world. 

The Declaration of Independence, therefore, estabhshed a great 
epoch in the science of government. By it, the whole system of 
the ancient regime, which was pm-ely artificial, was exploded, and 
sii})erseded by an entire new code, founded in reason and morahty. 
The principles of the former, were reversed. All power was de- 
clared to be inherent^ originally, in the people, and derived, second- 
arily, to the rulers. Thcij, instead of being the masters, were de- 
clared to be the servants of the people. It proclaimed the great 
truths, that 'governments are instituted for the benefit of the people, 
and that ' they derive their just powers from the consent of the gov- 
erned.' The whole of this pure theory rested upon the funda- 
mental axiom of the native equality of the human race. This, 
it will be recollected, was a favorite maxim of the Author in early 
youth, and formed the basis of his first effort of legislation. In the 
same spu-it, it is placed at the head of the imposing catalogue of 
' self-evident tmths,' with which he prefaces the present perfonii- 
ance. 

There is another prominent feature in this paper, which is strong- 
ly illustrative of the writer. Consideration is especially due to it, 
since it has sometimes been cited in derogation of the instrument, 
whereas it constitutes one of its peculiar beauties. It is the appar- 
ent asperity, with which it treats the personal character of the King, 
and the industrious precision, with which it charges upon him ex- 
clusively, the complicated calamities of the Colonies. Those who 
recollect the ground originally assumed, and uniformly maintained 
by Mr. Jefferson, on the controverted question of the relation be- 
tween Great Britain and the Colonies, wiU not derive any unfavor- 
able mipressions from this objection. On the contrary, they will 
be struck w4th the admirable consistency of his opinions upon this 
point, through every stage of the controversy, from first to last. 
It will be remembered, that the only link of connection which he 
recognized, as subsisting between the Colonies and the mother 
country, was that of an identity of Sovereign. Consequently, tlie 
Oldy political tie, which it was the business of the Declaration to 
sever, was that which united us to the King himself. Parhament 
is not so much as mentioned in the whole instrument ; he liad 
never admitted its authority ; consequently he had nothing to do 



122 LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

with it, nor with the British Government, in the aggregate. But 
allegiance to the Crown he had acknowledged, in common wnth all 
the Colonists, and scrupulously adhered to, down to the epoch of the 
la^jt extremities. Conformity to the principles upon which he rest- 
ed the dispute, required that he should restrain the responsibility of 
all that had been perpetrated, to the Monarch alone. And he ac- 
cordingly charged upon him, indiscriminately, all the malversa- 
tions of the Government ; either as the sole and separate agent, or 
when abuses of Parliament are referred to, as " comljining with 
others" in " acts of pretended legislation." How beautifully then, 
does this mode of procedure tally with the line of opinion and con- 
duct, which he had uniformly observed before. In his first politi- 
cal essay, he had narrowed the issue down to the same point, to 
which he now confijied it. But at that time, the opinion was 
deemed heterodox and chimerical ; only a single individual c^uld 
be found to agree with him ; his proposition was rejected by the 
Assembly to which it was offered, and the middle ground taken. 
Congress, indeed, were now prepared to adopt the same principle ; 
not however, without expunging that portion* of the original in- 
strument, which went to declare they had always been of the same 
opinion. A simple regard to truth required this exception to the 
primitive form. 

From the imperfect view thus presented, of the character of this 
document, the reader will be qualified to form some idea of the great 
principles of the American Revolution ; and to detect from among 
its sainted constellation of movers and counsellors, the mind which 
had the predominant agency in originating, illustrating and establish- 
ing those principles. An attentive reflection upon those salient and 
governing points in the Revolution, which decided its political direction 
and character, w ill detect a strong discrimination of doctrine among its 
principal actors, and will assign to Thomas Jefferson the distinction 
of pre-eminence, in the management of its moral power. He had 
constantly pre-occupied its path. He had anticipated all its cardinal 
decisions, at a great distance ; prescril^ed the terms of most of them ; 
and was emphatically the father of the principles, which governed 
in tlie greatest and final one, His Declaration, backed by the om- 



* See Declaration. The paragraph begins, » Nor have we been wanting ia 
attentions to our British brethren,' 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 123 

nipotence of the occasion, breathed those principles into the Nation, 
and consummated their eternal ascendancy. These principles, thus 
potently transfused and nationaUzed, gave soul and body to the 
American Revolution, and distinguished it from all its predecessors 
in the earth, by making it a revolution of mind, and not of mere 
brute force. Powerful affinities co-operated to produce this great 
moral transformation, but the trancendent influence of particular 
characters can never be disguised or overlooked, in the estiiuate of 
causes. With the developments, Avhich are daily multiplying, of 
the councils and transactions of that prolific era, all reputed history 
will be confounded, if it is not already, in the relative importance 
wliich it has attached to its political, and its military chieftains. In 
vain had the immortal Washington led the armies of the Revolution 
to the ' field of honorable death,' and performed such miracles of 
valor and martial enterprise, had not the moral condition of the 
Country kept pace with its physical conquests. In vain had tlie 
particular rights in dispute been secured, by a decision upon the 
final appeal, and our Independence, to all common intent, \yeen 
achieved, had not a cotemporaneous change been effected in the 
minds, feelings, habits and dispositions of the people, preparatory to 
a fundamental reformation in the principles and practices of their 
Government. The emancipation of the American Colonies from 
the parent empire, might have been a mere feat of arms, great in- 
deed, but scarcely worth the cost ; yet how inconceivably important 
the event, with the concomitant and resulting benefits, which 
were actually superinduced. And in the mighty work of securing 
these benefits, who led the way ? Who, on all occasions involving 
the fate of first principles, uniformly took the laboring oar, and had 
the singular felicity to see his opinions finally and completely amer- 
icanized ? 

The generation has passed away, which could number a solitary 
dissentient in the decision of these questions. The time has been, 
however, in which the temper and animosity of the popular mind, 
engendered by the fierce and angry collisions upon those very prin- 
ciples, presented a disreputable contrast in the state of feeling on this 
subject. Upon the organization of the government, a strong party 
arose which strangely misconceived the genuine text of the Revo- 
iution. Under this infatuation, they first attempted to bring the prin- 
ciples themselves into disrepute, and afterwards, on perceiving their 



124 LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

inherent soundness and infinite merit, to detract from the generally 
aximitted title of Mr. Jefferson as their originator and principal pro- 
moter. Not only were the doctrines of the Declaration pronounced 
oommon-place, and downrightplagiarisms, but the authorship of the 
production itself was brought in question. The newspapers, even 
of a very modern date,* teem with disgraceful ribaldry upon this 
topic. To these pusillanimous assaults upon his just reputation, 
he opposed no other barrier, than that of 'the dignified contempt by 
which he has consigned to oblivion, all the spoken and written scur- 
rility of his enemies.'! Among the multitude of sacrilegious stric- 
tures upon the primitive palladium of human liberty, and its canon- 
ized framer, the most elaborate attempt at disparagement, appeared 
in the unnatural form of a fourth of July oration, in 1S23, by 
Timothy Pickering. The political opinions advanced in this 
critique, being matters of mere private specidation, do not deeply 
concern us ; but the material inaccuracies of fact which it contains, 
relative to the Declaration of Independence, require attention ; more 
especially since they have obtained an extensive currency with 



* The following extracts from leading anti-republican journals, so late as the 
year 1822, will suffice to exhibit the general character of that warfare, which for 
thirty years, was directed against the silent and unresisting claims of the Au- 
thor of the Declaration. The first is from the Philadelphia Union, and the sec- 
ond from the New-York Commercial Advertiser. 

" Wo have long been acquainted with the facts alluded to in the following ar- 
ticle from the Federal Republican. We have seen Mr. Jefferson's draught of the 
Declaration of Independence, scored and scratched like a school hoy''s exercise. 
When Mr. Schaeffer shall comply with his promise to publish the documents re- 
lating to this subject, the jackdaw will be slript of the plumage, with which adula- 
tion has adorned him, and the crown will be placed on the head of a real patriot.^' 

" The old controversy relative to Mr. Jefferson's agency in drafting the Dec- 
laration of Independence, is again revived, in the southern papers, and, as is 
usual in most controversies, both parties are in error — the one denying him all 
credit in regard to the authorship of that splendid document, and the other be- 
stowing it all upon him. It appears to be the common opinion that Mr. Jeffer- 
son was the exclusive author of the Declaration of 1776 ; and he is every year 
toasted as such in every part of the country. But this is not the fact. Mr. Jef- 
ferson was one of the committee appointed to prepare the draught, and he drew 
the original paper ; but his co-adjutors were so little satisfied with the perform- 
ance, that it was loorked over and altered almost from beginning to end. Many al- 
terations of language were made, much was stricken out, as much more added; 
so that when completed it bore but little resemblance to Mr. Jejferson''s draught. 
We have had for several years a copy of this document, which shows at one 
view, the original draught as made by Mr. Jefferson, the erasures and alterations 
that were made, and also the additions of the Committee. Mr. Jefferson de- 
serves as vxuch credit, for the share he took in this labor, as any other member of the 
Committee, and no more.'''' 

jf- Edinburgh Review, 1814. 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 125 

ilie public. The best ansvv-er, however, to this diatribe of Picker- 
ing, is found in a confidential letter of Mr. Jefferson, to his bosom 
friend Madison ; than which, no example of familiar correspondence 
could be given, which should illustrate the character of the writer 
in a more endearing light. 

"You have doubtless sesn Timothy Pickering's fourth of July 
observations on the Declaration of Independence. If liis principles 
and prejudices, personal and political, gave us uo reason to douljt 
whether he had truly quoted the information he alleges to have re- 
ceived from Mr. Adams, I should then say, that in some of the par- 
ticulars, Mr. Adams' memory has led him into imquestionable er- 
ror. At the age of eighty-eight, and forty-seven years after the 
transactions of Independence, this is not wonderful. Nor should I, 
at the age of eighty, on the small advantage of that difference only, 
venture to oppose my memory to his, were it not supported by writ- 
ten notes, taken by myself at the moment and on the spot. He 
says, ' The committee of five, to wit, Doctor Frankhn, Sherman, 
Livingston, and ourselves, met, discussed the suliject, and then ap- 
pointed him and myself to make the draught; that we, as asub- 
comiuittee, met, and after the urgencies of each on the other, I con- 
sented to undertake the task ; that, the draught being made, we, the 
sub-committee, met, and conned the paper over, and he does not 
remember that he made or suggested a single alteration.' Now 
these details are quite incorrect. The committee of Ave met ; no 
such thing as a sub-committee was proposed, but tJiey imanimously 
pressed on myself alone to undertake the draught. I consented ; 
I drew it ; but before I reported it to the committee, I communica- 
ted it separately to Dr. Franklin and Mr. Adams, requesting theii- 
corrections, because they were the two members of whose judg- 
ments and amendments I wished most to have the benefit, Ijefore 
presenting it to the committee ; and you have seen the original 
paper now in my hands, with the corrections of Doctor Franklin 
and Mr. Adams interhned in their own hand vrritings. Their 
alterations were two or three only, and merely verbal. I then 
wrote a fair copy, reported it to the committee, and from them, un- 
altered, to Congress. This personal communication and consulta- 
tion with Mr. Adams, he has misremembered into the actings of a 
sub-committee. Pickering's observations, and Mr. Adams' in addi- 
tion, ' that it contained no new ideas, that it is a common-place 
compilation, its sentiments hacknied in Congress for two years be- 
fore, and its essence contained in Otis' pamplet,' may all be true. 
Of that I am not to be the judge. Richard Henry Lee charged 
It as copied from Locke's Treatise on CTOvernment. Otis' pamph- 
let I never saw, and whether I had gathered my ideas fiom read- 
ing or reflection I. do not know. I know only that I turned to nei- 
ther book nor pamphlet while writing it. I did n^t consider it 

12 



126 LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

as any part of my charge to invent new ideas altogether, and to 
offer no sentiment which had ever been expressed before. Had 
Mr, Adams been so restrained, Congress would have lost the bene- 
fit of his bold and impressive advocations of the rights of Revolu- 
tion. For no man's confident and fervent addresses, more than 
Mr. Adams', encouraged and supported us through^ the difficulties 
surrounding us, which, like the ceaseless action of gravity, weighed 
on us l)y niglit and by day. Yet, on the same ground, we may 
ask what of these elevated thouglits v/as nev/, or can be affirmed 
never before to have entered the conceptions of man ? 

Whether, also, the sentiments of Independence, and the reasons 
for declaring it, which makes so great a portion of the instrument, 
liad been hacknied in Congress for two years before the 4th of 
July, '76, or this dictum also of Mr. Adams be another slip of 
memory, let history say. This however, I Vvall say for Mr. Adams, 
that he supported the Declaration with zeal and ability, fighting 
fearlessly for every word of it. As to myself, I thought it a duty 
to be, on that occasion, a passive auditor of the opinions of others, 
more impartial judges than I could be, of its merits or demerits. 
During the debate, I was sitting by Doctor Franklin, and he ob- 
served that I was writhing a little under the acrimonious criticisms 
on some of its parts ; and it was on that occasion, that by way of 
comfort, he, told me the story of John Thomson, the hatter, and 
his new sign. 

Timothy thinks the instrument the better for having a fourth of 
it expunged. He would have thought it still better, had the other 
three fourths gone out also, all but the single sentiment (the only 
one he approves), which recommends friendship to his dear Eng- 
land, whenever she is willing to be at peace with us. His insinu- 
ations are, that althougli ' the high tone of the instrument was in 
unison wath the warm feelings of the times, this sentiment of ha- 
bitual friendship to England should never be forgotten, and that 
the duties it enjoins should especialli/ be borne in mind on every 
celebration of this anniversary.' In other words, that the Decla- 
tion, as being a libel on the government of England, composed in 
times of passion, should now be buried in utter oblivion, to spare 
the feelings of our EngUsh friends and Angloman fellow-citizens. 
But it is not to wound them that we wish to keep it in mind ; but 
to cherish the principles of the instrument in the bosoms of our 
own citizens ; and it is a heavenly comfort to see that these prin- 
. ciples are yet so strongly felt, as to render a cii'cumstance so trifling 
as this little lapse of memory of Mr. Adams', worthy of being 
solemnly announced and supported at an anniversary assemblage 
of the nation on its birth-day. In opposition, however, to Mr. 
Pickering, I pray God that these principles may be eternal, and 
close the prayer with my affectionate wishes for yourself of long 
life, health and happiness." 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 127 

Among the articles of information, which Mr. Pickering alleges 
to have received from Mr. Adams, he should have included the oft 
repeated declaration of the latter, that ' no man, but the one who 
did, could have produced that immortal paper.' He might also 
have cited the well known fact, that he retained to the last, his pre- 
ference for the primitive reading. With respect to the particular 
circumstances attending its preparation, the Notes happily taken by 
Mr. Jefferson at the time, and the original copy of the Declaration, 
in the hand writing of the author, found among his papers at his 
death, with the interlineations in the hand writings of Mr. Adams 
and Dr. Franklin, are placed in one scale, and the imputed recol-, 
lections of an octogenarian, in the other ; and the world must de- 
cide between them. The assertion, also, that the doctrines of the 
Declaration had been hacknied in Congress, for two years before, is 
contradicted by the whole tenor of history. Nothing had appeared 
like it, in the range of political disquisition, except his own previ- 
ous essays ; the most important of which, had been rejected as pre- 
mature and extravagant, but two years before, by the identical As- 
sembly which issued the Jirsi instructions recommendatory of In- 
dependence. All historians concur in testifying, that total emanci- 
pation was not contemplated until the Spring of '76.* And Mr. 
Adams in '75 had declared, " There is not a man in the province, 
among the whigs, nor ever was, who harbors a wish of Independ- 
ence," Again, '• Our patriots have never determmed or desired to 
be independent States." How then could the sentiments of the 
Declaration have been hacknied, in Congress, for two years before ? 
So far from it, the whole aim and object of that body, anterior to 
the Spring of '76, had been reconcihation ; and all its consultations 
and discussions had been conducted upon that basis. The rea- 
sons and rights of Revolution existed, it is true, in the funda- 
mental principles of colonization. But who, let it be remarked, 
was the earliest to discover, illustrate, and enforce those principles ? 
Historic fidehty will say, the Author of the Declaration himself, in 
his masterly dissertation upon the doctrine of expatriation, &,c. in 
'74 ; in which he constructed the entire, and the only tenable the- 
ory of Colonial rights, then deemed so treasonable and revolutiona- 
ry as to subject him to the ostracism of the British Parliament. 

* See Gordon, Ramsay, Marshall, Bottn, &c. 



128 LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPrNIONS 

Well might he then magnanimously declare, in noticing the viir- 
dictive maraudings upon his reputation, ' let history speak.' Nor 
will his confidence in the integrity of that luiipire, be deceived. 
Impartial generations will rely with more confidence, upon the pure 
text of contemporaneous chronicles, than upon the gratuitous con- 
structions, contortions and surmises of modern critics and commen- 
tators. The civil and political history of that renowned race has 
never been presented in a just and adequate light ; its monuments, 
too, are fast crumbling away ; but it is hoped, that enough has been 
preserved, with the aid of competent hands, to rescue from reproach 
at least, an age, which united the greatest moral endowments to 
the greatest power of cii-cumstances, and had a larger share in 
shaping the destinies of mankind, than any other that has yet ap,- 
peared. 

The tenii for which Mr. Jefierson had been elected to Congre&s, 
expiied on the 11th of August, '70 ; and he had communicated to 
the Convention of Virginia, in June preceding, his intentions to 
decline a re-appointment. But his excuses were overruled Ijy that 
body, and he was unanmiously re-elected. On receiving intelli- 
gence of the result, gratifying as it was in the higliest degree, he 
addressed a second letter to the chairman of the Convention, in 
which he adhered to his original resolution, — as folloAvs : 

" I am sorry the situation of my domestic affaus renders it in- 
dispensably necessary, that I should solicit the substitution of some 
other person here, in my room. The delicacy of the House will 
not requii'e me to enter minutely into the private causes which ren- 
der this necessary. I trust they will be satisfied I would not have 
urged it again, were it not unavoidable. I shall with cheerfulness 
continue in dvUy here till the expiration of our ) ear, by which time 
I hope it will be convenient for my successor to attend." 

He continued in Congress until the 2d of September following, 
when, his successor having arrived, he resigned his seat and re- 
turned to Virginia. 

Thus closed the extraordinary career of this illustrious Reformer 
in the Continental Congress. He had been in actual attendance 
upon that renowned Legislature, a Dout nine months only, in all; and 
yet he had succeeded in impressing his character, in distinct and 
legible forms, upon the whole inchoate empire. The result is as- 
tonishing when considered in connection with his immature age. 
He had, at this time, attained only his thirty-third year, and was 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSbN. 129 

the youngest man but one, in the session of '76. The example is 
without a parallel in the personal annals of the world. 

We^have been restrained by our design, to the capital and distin- 
guishing points in his course. The minor features of his service 
while engaged in conducting the general administration, vrere pro- 
portioned to the same standard ; but they are shorn of all interest 
by the overshadowing importance, which attaches to his gigantic 
chef de' onvres in the sphere of Revolution. In the multiplied 
operations of a subordinate character, which engaged the attention 
of the House, he sustained a corresponding prominency. To es- 
timate the extent of his labors, it is only necessary to turn over 
the journals of Congress. In constituting the committees of im- 
portance it v^ras the policy, in general, to put Virginia at the head ; 
and the effect of this pohcy was to throw him into the situation 
of Chairman, unusually often. No member, probably, served on 
more committees, or executed a greater amount of business, in pro- 
portion to his term of service, than he did. The union of uncom- 
mon practical facility, with pecuhar theoretical acuteness and pro- 
pensity, is an anomoly in the constitution of man. It is proverbial, 
however, that he displayed an aptitude no less original and sur- 
prising in the ordinary details of legislation, than in the high con- 
cerns of an abstract and metaphysical nature, v\7hich were commit- 
ted to him. 

The retirement of Mr. Jefferson from a stage of action, on 
which he had performed such prodigies of Revolution, in the zenith 
of human popularity and power, and at the first crisis of Independ- 
ence, may appear unaccountable, vvith tlie lights already in pos- 
session of the. reader. The causes which he assigned, seem clearly 
disproportioned to the effect, reasoning from all analogy, applicable 
to himself alone, or the human character generally ; and compel 
us to resort to more competent aids of revelation, for a satisfactory 
solution of the mystery. The predominant motive, which dictated 
his resignation, but which his modesty would not permit him to 
urge to the Convention, is found inserted among his private ' Mem- 
oranda.' It is alike curious and honorable. He says : " The 
new government (in Virginia) was now organized ; a meeting of 
the Legislatiue was to be held in October, and I had been elected 
a member by my county. / kneio that our legislation, wuier 
the regal government, had many very vicious points wl^i'Ch ur- 

12* 



130 LIFEj WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

i^ently required reformation ; and I thought I coidd be of inore 
use in forwarding that ivork. I therefore retired from my seat 
in Congress," &:c. The whole secret of the transaction is here un- 
veiled, and is singularly in unison with the reigning attribute of 
his character. Those who recollect the iiTepressible anxiety which 
he felt for Vkginia, while in the crisis of her transition from the 
monarchical to the republican state, and the severe contribution 
wliich he made upon his own industry, towards securing the great- 
est practicable measure of freedom and liberality in the act, will be 
impressed Vv^ith the admirable coincidence of purpose, A\'hich influ- 
enced his present determination. The new government in the first 
province of free empire, was now" fairly put in motion ; and he felt 
an invincible desire to participate in the measures of the first re- 
publican Legislature under it. Every thing, he conceived, depend- 
ed upon the stamp of political unction that should be impressed 
upon the new institutions of a State government, which was to set 
the example in the career of repul^Ucan legislation, and which 
constituted so influential a member of the incipient confederacy. 
The principles of her present code were incompatible with the 
enjoyment of any considerable benefits under the change of Ad- 
ministration, and required a fundamental revision and reduction 
io a consistent standard. The EngUsh common law, with its odi- 
ous and despotic refinements of feudal origin, was in full force : 
many of the British statutes, of the most obnoxious character, still 
binding upon them ; the Tirginia statutes themselves scarcely less 
aristocratic, and hostile to well-regulated liberty ; presenting, in all, 
an unwieldy and vicious pile of legislation, civil and religious, 
which, in the mind of the political redeemer of men, embra- 
ced stronger attractions, and more imperious urgencies, than 
the scene which he had just immortalized with his labours.^ 
To have descended fiom an eminence in Congress, which placed 
him indisputably at the helm of the Revolution, to the subordinate 
station of representative to the municipal Assembly, was an act of 
magnanimous patriotism, of which history furnishes few examples. 
But he was impressed with the necessity of carrying into action, 
upon the generous flood of the national enthusiasm, all the sound 
principles which he meditated securing in the efibrt of emancipa- 
tion-, and now he thought was the propitious moment for com 
mencing the enterprise. 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 131 

" The spirit of the times," he said " may alter, will alter. Oiiv 
rulers will become corrupt, oin- people careless. A single zealot 
may become persecutor, and better men be his victhns. It can 
never be too often repeated, that the time for fixing every essential 
right, on a legal basis, is while our rulers are honest, and ourselves 
united. From the conclusion of this war we shall be going down 
hill. It will not then be necessary to resort every moment to the 
people for support. They will be forgotten, therefore, and their 
rights disregarded. They v»all forget themselves, but in the sole 
faculty of making money, and will never think of writing to effect 
a due respect for their rights. The shackles, therefore, which shall 
not be knocked off at the conclusion of this wai-, will remain on us 
long, will be made heavier and heavier, till our rights shall revive 
or expire in a convulsion." 

With the special design, therefore, of heading, in person, the 
great work of political regeneration, which he had sketched for his 
country, and for mankind, he early signified his determination to 
relinquish his station in the National Councils ; and v/as instantly 
thereupon elected to a seat in the Legislature of Virginia. 

Before following him into that body, however, the order of time 
requires us to notice a singular mark of distinction conferred on him 
by Congress. He had been absent from Philadelphia but a few 
days, before he received the appointment of Commissioner to France, 
in conjunction with Dr. Franklin, to negotiate treaties of alliance 
and commerce w ith that government. Silas Dean, then m France, 
acting as agent for procuring military supplies, and for sounding 
the dispositions of the government towards us, was joined with them 
in the commission. The appointment was made on the last day of 
September, 1776. Greater importance was attached to the success- 
ful issue of the transaction, than to any other that had yet been 
meditated. The prevailing object of declaring Independence, had 
been to secure the countenance and assistance of foreign Powers ; 
and towards France, — chivalrous, highminded France, — whose 
friendship and co-operation appeared the most likely to be obtained, 
the hopes of the .country w^re undividedly directed. 

If any thing could mark more unequivocally, the respect of Con- 
gress for the abilities of Mr. Jefferson, as manifested by this ap- 
pointment, it was the fact of their having associated a young man 
of thirty-three, with a venerable philosopher of seventy, then the 
most distinguished civil character in America. 



132 LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPIKIONS 

But the same reasons whicli influenced his retirement from Con- 
gress, induced him to decline accepting the foreign station also, as 
appears by the following letter addressed to the President of Congress. 

"Williamsburg, October 11, 1776. 
" Honorable Sir, — Your favor of the 30th, together with the reso- 
lutions of Congress, of the 26th ultimo, came safe to hand. It 
would argue great insensibiUty in me, could I receive with indiffer- 
ence, so confidential an ap})ointment from your Ijody. My thanks 
are a poor return for the partiality they have been pleased to enter- 
tain for me. No cares for my own person, nor yet for my private 
affair's, would have induced one moment's hesitation to accept the 
charge. But circumstances very peculiar in the situation of my 
family, such as neither permit me to leave, nor to carry it, compel 
me to ask leave to decline a service so honorable, and, at the same 
time, so important to the American cause. The necessity under 
which I labor, and the conflict 1 have undergone for three days, 
during wdiich I could not determine to dismiss your messenger, will, 
I hope, plead my pardon with Congress ; and I am sure there are 
too many of that body to whom they may with better hopes con- 
fide this charge, to leave them under a moment's difficulty in mak- 
ing a new choice. I am, sir, with the most sincere attachment to 
your honorable body, and the great cause they support, their and 
your most obedient, humble servant. 

But a more adetjuate and interesting revelation of his motives, 
than is contained in the above letter, is found among his private 
Memoranda. After repeating the domestic causes already stated, he 
says : " I saw., too, that the laboring oar loas really at home., 
where much was to he done, of the most permanent interest, in 
new-modelling our governments, and much to defend our fanes 
and firesides, from the desolations of an invading enemy, pressing on 
our country in every point. I declined, therefore, and Dr. Lee was 
appointed in my place." 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 133 



CHAPTER V. 

Mr. Jefferson took his seat in the Legislature of Virginia, on the 
7th of October, 177G, the opening day of the session. The first ob- 
ject of reform, which arrested the attention of his enquiring mind, 
was the Judiciary System ; the organization of v/hich, upon the 
broad basis of reason and common sense, struck him as a measure 
of superlative importance. Besides being indispensable, in great 
part, to meet the external revolution of the government, such a 
sclieme of improvement, was eminently calculated to attach the pop- 
ular bias to the new order of things, — which should ahvays be the 
first business of the Reformer. In the French Revolution, for in- 
stance, the principle of a la mode simply, which arranged all the 
handsome young women on the side of democracy, was an engine 
of more power m that Nation, than the two hundred thousand men 
of the King. But the potent enthusiasm of new opinions, will sub- 
side with the novelty of them, and expire in a more potent revulsion, 
unless fortified by the gradual attainment of such real advantages as 
are competent to satisfy the reasonable anticipations of the adher- 
ent multitude. No man had studied, with more fidelity, the opera- 
tions of the human mind, or knew how to control them with more 
certainty and efiect, than Mr. Jefferson. He was less adapted than 
many others, to raise the tempest, but no one was better fitted to ride 
on, and direct it. He was clearly the magician of the age in this 
way ; and the secret of his power lay in his mode of exerting and 
applying it. The cherishment of the jJeople was the vital princi- 
ple of his policy, and the spring of his unprecedented success. 
The object, which he was now about to forward, was an eminent 
illustration of this wise policy. The administration of justice, is a 
subject of profound and universal concernment. It comes home to 
the ' business and bosoms of men.' The measure which should en- 
graft it, in sound and judicious forms, upon the infant body politic, 
would be an example of disinterested reform, that would concen- 
trate, at once, the energies of popular favor. 

On the 11th of October, therefore, he obtained leave to bring in 
a Bill for the establishment of Courts of Justice. The proposition 



J 34 LIFE, WRITINGS. AND OPINION.-^ 

was referred to a committee, of which he was chairman. He draft 
ctl the ordinance ; submitted it to the committee, by whom it was 
approved ; and reported it to the Hourie, where, after passing tluough 
the ordinary course, it was adopted with unanimity. 

The system proposed by Mr. Jefferson, was simple in its organi- 
zation, and highly republican in its spirit. It is retained, essential- 
ly unimpaired, in the existing code of Virginia. It established the 
model for succeeding Legislatures, in the different States, as they 
successively proceeded to the same duty ; and its main features are 
observable in the Judiciary Systems of all our State governments, 
at the present day. 

It divided the State into counties, and erected three distinct 
grades of Courts — County, Superior, and Supreme. The quality 
and extent of jurisdiction, prescribed to each grade, were similar to 
the prevailing divisions on that subject, in the United States. The 
trial by jury was guarded with extreme circumspection. In all 
questions of fact, or of fact and law combined, the reference to a 
jury was made imperative in the Courts of Law ; and the franier 
of the bill had designed to make it imperative also, in the Court of 
Chancery ; but the provision was defeated in the House, ]iy the in- 
troduction of a discretionary clause, on motion of Mr. Pendleton, a 
gentleman of high English prejudices. The consequence has been, 
that as no suiter will say to his judge, ' Sir, I distrust you, give me a 
jury,' juries are rarely, perhaps never, seen in that Court, but when 
ordered by the Chancellor of his own accord. 

On the following day, October 12, he brought forward his celebra- 
ted Bill for the aboUtion of the Law of Entails. This was a cardinal 
measure, and a bold one for the political semi-barbarism of that age. 
Nor could a body of men have been easily selected, upon whose 
sensibilities the proposition would have grated with more harshness, 
than upon the refined aristocracy of a Virginia Assembly. The 
strong lines of discrimination, which were impressed upon the socie- 
ty of Virginia, during the early stages of the settlement, are celebra- 
ted in history ; nor has the genius of her republican institutions 
been successful, as yet, in obliterating those artificial and dissocializ- 
ing distinctions, or in extinguishing the high aristocratical spirit 
which they engendered. In the earlier times of the Colony, when 
lands were to be obtained for little or nothing, certain provident in- 
dividuals procured large grants ; and,, desirous of founding great 



OF THOMAS JEFFRSON. 13 5 

families for themselves, settled them on their descendants in fee tail. 
The transmission of these estates from generation to generation, in 
the same name, raised up a distinct set of families, who, being privi- 
leged by the law, in the perpetuation of their wealth, were thus 
formed into a Patrician order, distinguished by the splendor and 
luxury of their establishments. This order, having in process of 
time, engulphed the greater part of the landed property, and with it, 
the political power of the Province, remained stationary, in gener- 
al, on the grounds of their forefathers ; for there was no emigration 
to the westward in those days. The Irish, who had gotten posses- 
sion of the valley between the Blue-Ridge and the North Mountain, 
formed a barrier over which none ventured to leap ; and their man- 
ners presented no attractions to the opulent lowlanders to settle 
among them. 

" In such a state of things," says Mr. Jefferson, " scarcely admit- 
ting any change of station, society would settle itself down into sev- 
eral strata, separated by no marked lines, but shading off impercep- 
tibly from top to bottom, nothing disturbing the order of their re- 
pose. There were, then, first aristocrats, composed of the great 
landholders who had seated themselves below tide water on the 
main rivers, and lived in a style of luxury and extravagance, insup- 
portable by the other inhabitants, and which, indeed, ended, in sever- 
al instances, in the ruin of their own fortunes. Next to these were 
what may be called Jialf breeds; the descendants of the younger 
sons and daughters of the aristocrats, who inherited the pride of their 
ancestors, without their wealth. Then came the pretenders, men 
who from vanity or the impulse of growing wealth, or from that en- 
terprize which is natural to talents, sought to detach themselves from 
the plebeian ranks, to which they properly belonged, and unitated, 
at some distance, the manners and habits of the great. Next to 
these, were a solid and independent yeomanry, looking askance at 
those above, yet not venturing to jostle them. And last and lowest, 
Sifeculum of beings called overseers, the most abject, degraded, un- 
principled race ; ahvays cap in hand to the dons who employed 
them, and furnishing materials for the exercise of their pride, inso- 
lence, and spirit of domination." 

By birth and fortune, Mr. Jefferson belonged to the aristocracy ; 
but his intellectual tastes revolted him from the indolent and volup- 
tuous habits which marked the lives of that order ; and his political 
principles attached him, by early and indissoluble sympathies, to 
the solid and independent yeomanry, whom he represents as ' look- 
ing askance' at those above them. 



136 LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

" Those who labor in the earth," he early declared, " are the choS' 
en people of God, if ever he had a chosen people, whose breasts he 
lias made his peculiar deposit for substantial and genuine virtue. 
It is the focus in which he keeps alive that sacred lire, which oth- 
erwise might escape from the face of the earth. Corruption of 
morals in the mass of cultivators, is a phenomenon of which no age 
nor nation has furnished an example. It is the mark set on those, 
who not looking up to heaven, to their own soil and industry, as 
does the husliandman, for their subsistence, depend for it on the 
casualties and caprice of customers. Dependence begets subservi- 
ence and venality, suffocates the germ of virtue, and prepares fit 
tools for the designs of amliition. This, the natural progress and 
consequence of the arts, has sometimes, perhaps, been retarded by 
accidental circumstances ; but, generally speaking, the proportion, 
vrhich the aggregate of the other classes of citizens bears, in any 
State, to that of its husbandmen, is the proportion of its unsound to its 
healthy parts, and is a good enough barometer whereby to measure 
its degree of corruption." 

Impressed with these strong, unsophisticated views, he bewailed, 
with an incessant desire of redressment, the vitiated and fearfully an- 
ti-republican features, which characterized the social state of Vir- 
ginia. The Law of Entails was the key-stone of this pernicious oli- 
garchy. Besides locking up the lands of the Commonwealth in the 
hands of a fixed nobility, and thereby discouraging immigration, it 
legitimated the mastery of might over right, and in the most effectu- 
al forms. It was a weapon, which the law itself superadded to the 
multitude of natural means, to assist the strong in beating down and 
trampling upon the weak. It enabled the original and opulent pro- 
prietaries of the " Ancient Dominion," or their descendants, to per- 
petuate the unnatural supremacy of wealth, over talents and virtue, 
and to entail upon society ad infinitum^ the most disastrous corrup- 
tions of the regal dynasty. Children became disobedient and dis- 
sipated, or relapsed into a state of indolent independence, when they 
knew they could not be ousted of their estates ; creditors were de- 
frauded of their honest debts ; and bona fide purchasers were, in 
many instances, either deprived of their title altogether, or compell- 
ed to resort to courts of justice, to substantiate it against innumera- 
ble latent entails. The abolition of this prerogative, therefore, was 
rightly deemed by Mr. Jefferson, a first measure in repubhcanizing 
the institutions, manners and customs of his country. 

" To annul this privilege," says he, " and instead of an aristoc- 
racy of wealth, of more harm and danger, than benefit, to society, to 



OF TH61MAS JEFFERSON. 137 

make an opening for the aristocracy of Adrtue and talent, which na- 
ture has Avisely provided for the direction of the interests of society, 
and scattered witli equal hand through all its conditions, was deem- 
ed essential to a well ordered republic. To effect it, no violence was 
necessary, no deprivation of natural right, but rather an enlarge- 
ment of it, by a repeal of the law. For tliis AA'ould authorise the 
present holder to divide the property among his children, equally, 
as his affections were divided ; and would place them, by natural 
generation, on the level of their fellow citizens." 

The Repeal was resisted, with desperation, by the sturdy and in- 
exorable barons of the Legislature. It would doubtless amuse the 
modern mind, to have a peep at the arguments which were urged 
against a measure, so clearly dictated by every principle of justice 
and sound policy : but unfortunately they have not been preserved. 
The opposition was headed by Edmund Pendleton, speaker of the 
House, a gentleman of great capacity, but zealously attached to an- 
cient establishments. He had been the jirotege of the lordly John 
Robinson, the acknowledged leader, of the landed aristocracy, for 
half a century ; and the mantle of his patron had fallen upon him- 
self. His personal influence was gigantic, and his powers as a de- 
bater, were of a high order. For dexterity of address, fertility of 
resource, and parliamentary management, he was without a rival. 
With such a champion, some idea may be formed, oi the character 
and force of the opposition. But their resistance was unavailing. 
Finding they could not overthrow the gene'til principle of the bill, 
they took Jieir stand on an amendment »vhich they proposed, — in- 
stead of absolute abolition, to permit t-^ie tenant in tail, to convey in 
fee simple, if he chose it : and thej were within a few votes of sav- 
ing so much of the old law. But after a severe contest, the bill 
finally passed for entire abolition ; and thus, to use the language of 
the Author, was " broken up the hereditary and high-handed aris- 
tocracy, which, by accumulating immense masses of property in 
single lines of family, had divided our country into two distinct or- 
ders of nobles and plebeians." The following short preamble intro- 
duces the act. 

" Whereas, the perpetuation of property in certain families, by 
means of gifts made to them in fee taille, is contrary to good policy, 
tends to deceive fair traders, who give credit on the visible possession 
of such estates, discourages the holders thereof from taking care 
and improving the same, and sometimes does injury to the morals 
of youth, by rendering them independent of, and disobedient to 



138 LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

their parents ; and whereas, the former method of docking such 
estates taille, by special act of Assembly, formed for every particular 
case, employed very much of the time of the Legislature, and the 
same, as well as the method of defeating such estates, when of small 
value, was burthensome to the public, and also to individuals : 
" Be it therefore enacted, &c. 

The next prominent heresy in the pohtical economy of Virginia, 
which encountered the keen glance of the Reformer, was her Reili- 
gious Establishment. This institution, he considered one of the 
most preposterous and deleterious remnants of the repudiated regen- 
cy ; but his advances upon this sulrject, in all its breadth and bear- 
ings, had left the residue of mankind, with few exceptions, far in 
the rear of his conclusions. 

The Church establishment of Virginia was of the Episcopal order, 
coeval with its first colonization, and, in all respects, a filiation of 
the parent hierarchy. The first settlers of the Colony were Eng- 
lishmen, loyal subjects to their King and Church ; and the grant of 
Sir Walter Raleigh, contained an express proviso, that their laws 
'should not be against the true christian faith, now professed in the 
Church of England.' They emigrated from the bosom of the 
mother church, ' just at a point of time, when it was flushed with 
complete victory over the religious of all other persuasions. Pos- 
sessed, as they became, of the powers of makhig, administering, and 
executing the laws, they showed equal intolerance in this country, 
with their Presbyterian bretheren, who had emigrated to the north- 
ern governments.'* As so^n as the state of the Colony admitted, it 
was divided into parishes, in tach of which was installed a minister 
of the Anglican church, endowed with a fixed salary in tobacco, a 
glebe house and land, with the other necessary appendages. To 
meet these expenses, all the inhabitants of the parish were assessed, 
whether they were, or not, members of the established Church. 
The integrity of the institution was guarded by the severest penal- 
ties against schismatics. Besides the Common Law provisions 
against heresij, making it a capital offence, punishable by burning, 
their own statuary enactments were scarcely less flagitious. Sever- 
al acts of the Viiginia Assembly, about the middle of the seventeenth 
century, had made it penal in parents to refiise to have their chil- 
dren baptised ; had prohibited the unlawful assembling of Quakers ; 



* Notes on Virginia, p. 216. 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 139 

had made it penal for any master of a vessel to bring a Quaker into 
the State ; had ordered those already there, and such as should come 
thereafter, to be imprisoned till they should abjure the country ; pre- 
scribed a milder punishment for the first and second return, but 
death for the third ; had inhibited all persons from suffering their 
meetings in or near their houses, entertaining them individually, or 
disix)sing of books which supported their tenets. And so late as 
1705, an act of Assemljly Avas passed, declaring, if any person 
iDrought up in the Christian religion, denied the being of a God, or 
the Trinity, or asserted there were more Gods than one, or de- 
nied the Christian religion to be true, or the scriptures to be of divine 
authority, he was punishable on the first offence, by incapacity to 
hold any office or employment, ecclesiastical, civil, or military ; on 
the second, by disability to sue, to take any gift or legacy, to be guar- 
dian, executor, or administrator, and by three years imprisonment 
without bail. 

»Such is an epitome of the religious slavery, which existed at this 

dine, in Viiginia , and 'if no evp^-ntiono Lad Uiken place, as did 

in New England, it was not owing to the moderation of the Church, 
or spirit of the Legislature, as may be inferred from the laws them- 
selves ; but to historical circumstances which have not been hand- 
ed down to us.'* The Convention which sat in May, '76, in their 
Declaration of Rights, had indeed proclaimed it to be a truth, and a 
natural right, that the exercise of religion should be free ; " but 
when they proceeded," says Mr. Jefferson, " to form on that Declara- 
tion, the ordinance of government, instead of taking up every prin- 
ciple declared in the Bill of Rights, and guarding it by legislative 
sanction, they passed over that which asserted our rehgious rights, 
leaving them as they found them." The wlijole catalogue of spirit- 
ual oppressions, therefore, was reserved for himself to wipe away ; to 
effect which, was an enterprise of a more desperate character than 
any he had ever undertaken. The generous excitement of the 
Revolution, was a powerful auxiliary to him ; but the state of the 
country, in general, exhibited the strange phenomenon, of a people 
devoting their lives and fortunes, for the recovery of their civil free- 
dom, and yet clinging, with idolatry, to a mental tyranny, tenfold 
more presumptuous and paralyzing, than all their external bonds. 

* Notes on Virginia, p. 216. 



140 Lipi:, wrRiTiNGS, aj?d of iiSrioiSrs 

Other moral causes, however, still more efficacious, combined with 
the spirit of the Revolution, to assist him in the arduous labor oi 
spiritual disenchantment. These causes are summarily stated by 
himself. 

"In process of time, however, other sectarisms w^ere introduced,- 
chietly of the Presbyterian family ; and the established clergy, se- 
cure for life in their glebes and salaries, adding to these, generally, 
the emoluments of a classical school, found employment enough in 
their farms and school rooms, for the rest of the week, and devoted' 
Sunday only to the edification of their flock, by service, and a sei'- 
mon at their parish church. Their other pastoral functions were 
little attended to. Against this inactivity, the zeal and industry of 
sectarian pi-eachers had an open and undisputed field ; and by the 
time of the Revolution, a majority of the inhabitants had become 
dissenters fi-om the estabhshcd church, but vrere still ol)liged to pay 
contril)utions to support the pastors of the nnnority. This unright- 
eous compulsion, to maintain teachers of what they deemed religious 
errors, was grievously felt during the regal government, and without 
a hope of relief. But the first repubhcan Legislature, which metii> 
'76^ was crowded with petitions to abolish this spiritual tyrctuuy."' 

Encouraged by the rising spirit of determination among the dis- 
senters, and relieved from the complicated restraints which external- 
ly barred all improvement, under the monarchy, he commenced hi& 
attack on the dominant religion, eaily in the session — to wit, on the 
11th of October. This bold and imposing movement, supported 
by the incessant and well directed appeals of the petitioners, roused 
the privileged clergy fiom their luxurious and protracted inertness. 
Counter memorials, accordingly, poured in from every cjuarter, soli- 
citing a continuance of the ecclesiastical polity, upon principles of 
justice, wisdom, and expediency. They represented, that the repeal 
of the church establishment would be an ex post facto enactment, 
and a violation of the public faith ; that the Episcopal clergy had 
entered upon their endowments, with the plighted obligation of the 
government to continue them therein, during life, or good behavior, 
as a compensation for their services, and that they held them by a 
tenure as sacred as that by which any man has secured to him his 
private property ; that the Episcopahans did not mean to encroach 
on the religious rights of any sect of men, yet they conceived the ex- 
istmg institution^, consecrated by the practice of so many years, as 
eminently conducive to the peace and happiness of the State ; much 
confusion, and probably civil commotions would attend the propos- 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 141 

ed change ; and finally, that an appeal should be made, for the de- 
cision of so important a question, to the sentiments and wishes of 
the people at large. The petitions, on the other hand, expatiated 
in bewitching strains, upon the l^urning theme of liberty ; and blend- 
ed with unanswerable demonstrations of right and reason, the pa- 
thetic expostulations of bereaved freemen. 

The subject was referred to the Committee of the whole House, 
on the state of the country, with the multitude of appertaining 
memorials and remonstrances. " These," says Mr. Jefferson in 
1820, '• brought on the severest contests m which I have ever been 
engaged. Our great opponents, were Mr. Pendleton and Robert 
Carter Nicholas ; honest men, but zealous churchmen," The ma- 
jority of the Legislature, unfortunately, were of the same religious 
stamp, which forced an alteration in the mode of attack, on the 
leader of the reform party. Finding he could not maintain the 
ground on which he set out, he varied his position from absolute, to 
partial abolition; and after vehement contests in the committee, al- 
most daily, from the 11th of October, to the 5th of December, he 
prevailed so far only, as to repeal the laws, which rendered criminal 
the maintenance of any religious opinions, the forl)earance of re- 
pairing to cliurch, or the exercise of any mode of w^orship. By 
the same act also, he secured a provision, exempting dissenters 
from contibutioiis to the support of the established church, and sus- 
pending, until the next session only, levies on the members of the 
church for the salaries of their own incumbents. But his oppo- 
nents carried in a declaratory saving, that religious assemblies 
ought to be regulated, and that provision ought to be made for con- 
tinuing the succession of the clergy, and superintending their con- 
duct. They succeeded also, in incorporating an express reserva- 
tion of the ultimate question, — Whether a general assessment 
should not be estabhshed by law, on every one, to support the pastor 
of his choice ; or whether all should be left to free and voluntary 
contributions. This question, the last prop of the tottering hierar- 
chy, reduced the struggle to one of pure principle. The particu- 
lar object of the dissenters being secured, they deserted the volunteer 
champion of their cause, and went over, in troops, to the advocates 
of a general assessment. This step, the natural proclivity of the 
sectarian mind, showed them incapable of religious lil^erty, upon an 
expansive scale, or broader than their own interests, as schismatics^ 

13* 



142 " LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

But the defection of the dissenters, painful as it was, only stimtr- 
lated his desire for total abolition, as it developed more palpably, the 
evidences of its necessity. He remained unshaken at his post ; and 
brouoht on the reserved question, at every session, from 76 to '79 ; 
during which time, he could only obtain a suspension of the levies 
from year to year, until the session of '79, when, by his unwearied 
exertions, the question was carried definitively, against a general 
assessment, and the establishment of the Anglican church entirely 
overthrown. 

This achievment is one of the standing monuments of that glo- 
ry-hallowed age, and of its great intellectual magician. The Rev- 
olution itself, with its catalogue of civil and political liberations- 
would have been but o. compromise, without it, between despotism 
and freedom ; and the balance would have been against us, in the 
same proportion as the liberties of a nation depend more on the 
moral, than on the political condition of its inhabitants. If ever 
there was an occasion, when the American people might glory in 
the superiority of their discoveries in the science of governmenty 
over the aggregate attainments of the nations of the earth, and 
])oast of having produced a legislator, wis^r than the wisest of their 
own, greater than the greatest of antiquity, it was that on which 
the Author of tliis act, peaceably, and by the mere force of reason^ 
banished from their political code, a heresy, fundamental in char- 
acter, consecrated by immemorial adoption, universal and uninter- 
rupted transmission, and cherished by the most indonatable preju- 
dices of the human mind. The liistory of the world presents no 
other example of a dissolution of Church and State, uncrimsoned 
by the l)lood of the martyr, or unattended, sooner or later, by a re^ 
establishment of the union, upon the basis of a more powerftil sec- 
tarism. It belonged to America, guided by the unsophisticated 
counsels of a native lawgiver, to establish the legitimate theory on 
this momentous subject, by exempting the operations of the human 
mind, in toto, from the jurisdiction of civil government. The other 
nations of the earth, catching their inspiiation from the American 
altar, are approximating, in slow degrees, to the same beneficent 
result ; and the time is not far distant, probably, when the policy 
of Mr. Jefferson will be universally recognized and put in practice. 
Who, then, can set limits to the magnitude of this political innova- 
ion, or the merits of its unrestrained originator ? It is from such 



OP THOMAS JEFFERSON. 



14S 



contiaests, achieved by such means, that the collect standard is de- 
rived, which determines the relative preponderance of empires, as 
of individuals, in the scale of greatness, power, and respectability. 
Thus was the cause of religious liberty astonishingly advanced. 
But still the work was incomplete. Statutory oppressions were dis- 
annulled ; but those which existed at the common law^, continued 
in force ; nor were the advantages already gained, secured by any 
|X)sitive legislative sanction. The proceedings hitherto, upon the 
subject, were of a belligerent character ; and although crownied ^^^th 
unexampled success, were regarded by the mover, in great part, as 
an experiment upon public opinion, ' indicative,' as he expressed it, 
' of the general pulse of reformation.' The immortal barrier which 
he sul>se(iuently erected, in perpetual security of the rights, of which 
he had already procured the recognition, forms the inimitable con- 
clusion of this impressive drama. We allude to his celebrated Re- 
ligious Freedom Bill, universally regarded as the chiefest of the 
bulwarks of human rights. As it constitutes a part of his gefteral 
Code of Revisal, the merits of this bill wDl be more particularly 
considered, when we come to develope the features of that vast and 
recondite labor. 

The next prominent corruption of the Monarchy, which Mr. 
Jefferson regarded as fatally inconsistent with the republican change, 
was the existence, and the practice of slavery. We have already 
seen hun, on two occasions, exerting his talents, and raising his 
prophetic voice, in awful admonition, against the continuance of 
this atrocious and wide spread injustice. The result of his for- 
mer attempt in the Legislature, which was based upon man- 
umission, or the permission to emancipate, had convinced him, 
of the utter impracticabihty of maintaining that ground ; and of 
the necessity of attacking the evil in such mode as should militate 
less diamatrically against the interests and prejudices of the reigning 
population. He took his stand, therefore, upon a proposition to 
abolish the execrable commerce in slaves ; which, by stopping im- 
portation, would arrest the increase of the evil, and diminish the 
obstacles to eventual eradication. But the business of the war 
pressing heavily upon the Legislature, the subject was not acted 
upon definitively, until the session of '78, wdien the bill was carried 
without opposition, and the slave trade triumphantly al^olished in 
Vu-ginia. The vast importance of this measure, and the grounds 



144 LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

upon which the author may contest the merit of priority, with the 
world, in the benevolent enterpise of African emancipation, will be 
explained at greater length, when we arrive at that period of his le- 
gislative history. 

The next object of public improvement, which struck the atten- 
tive mind of Mr. Jefferson as being of immediate urgency, was the 
removal of the Seat of Government. The situation of Williams- 
burg Avas so exposed, that it might be captured at any time in war, 
by the enemy running up, in the night, either of the rivers be- 
tween which it lay, landing a force above, and taking possession ; 
without the possibility of saving either the officers and archives of 
the government, or the military magazines. The Seat of Gov- 
ernment had been originally fixed at Jamestown, the first settle- 
ment of the colonists ; whence it had l)een afterwards removed a 
few miles inland, to Williamsburg. But at that time the settle- 
ments had not extended beyond the tide waters ; now they had 
cros«ed the Allegany ; and the centre of population had travelled 
fai' into the interior, from what it had been. In view of these con- 
siderations he submitted a proposition, early in October, for the re- 
moval of the government seat from Williamsburg to Richmond, 
the present metropolis ; but it did not prevail until the session of 
May, 79. 

Such were some of the astonishing feats of legislation, with 
which Mr. Jeflerson commenced the process of republican izing the 
institutions of America, in the first regular Legislature that was or- 
ganized on the dissolution of the Monarchy. They were all, it 
will be perceived, of an elementary character, and highly demo- 
cratic in their object and tendency. But still, the unique and 
deeply interesting work was only begun — so thought the reaching 
and untrammelled Innovator who contrived it. The original plan 
which he had proposed to himself, on determining to leave the 
floor of Congress, comprehended the entire resolution, and recast- 
ing into other forms, of the anciently established and generally re- 
ceived bases of civil government. 

" So far,"' says he, in his brief notes of these transactions, " we 
were proceeding in the details of reformation only ; selecting 
points of legislation, prominent in character and principle, ur- 
gent, and indicative of the strength of the general pulse of re- 
formation. When I left Congress in '76, it was in the persuasion, 
that oar whole code must be reviewed, adapted to our republican 



OF THOMAS JePFERSOK. 145 

form of government ; and now, that we had no negatives of Councils, 
Governors and Kings to restrain ns from doing right, that it should 
be corrected in all its parts, with a single eye to reason and the good 
of those for whose government it was framed." 

In pursuance of his original design, therefore, he now brought 
forward a proposition, which stands recorded in the Statute books 
of Virginia, in the following terms. 

"Whereas, on the late change which hath of necessity been intro- 
duced into the form of government in this country, it is become 
also necessary to make corresponding changes in the laws hereto- 
fore in force ; many of which are inapplicable to the powers of gov- 
ernment as now organized, others are founded on principles hetero- 
geneous to the republican spirit ; others, which long before such 
change, had been oppressive to the people, could yet never be re- 
pealed while the regal power continued ; and others, having taken 
their origin v/hile our ancestors remained in Britain, are not so well 
adapted to our present circumstances of time and place ; and it is 
also necessary to introduce certain other laws, which, though prov- 
ed by the experience of other States to be friendly to liberty and the 
lights of mankind, we have not heretofore been permitted to adopt ; 
and whereas a work of such magnitude, labor, and difficulty, may 
not 1)0 effected during the short and busy term of a session of 
Asseml^ly : 

"Be it therefore enacted, by the General Assembly of the Com- 
monwealth of Virginia, and it is hereby enacted by the authority of 
the same, — That a connnittee, to consist of five persons, shall be 
appointed by joint Imllot of both Houses, (three of whom to Ije a 
quoriun.) who shall have full power and authority to levise, alter, 
amend, repeal, or introduce all or any of the said laws, to form the 
same into Bills, and report them to the next meeting of the Gener- 
al Assembly", 

The resolution was passed on the 24th of October, 76, and on 
the 5th of November, Mr. Jefferson, as chairman, was associated in 
a commission with Edmund Pendleton, George Wythe, Georare 
Mason, and Thomas Ludwell Lee, to execute the contemplated 
revisal. The Commissioners were elected by a joint ballot of both 
Houses ; and the choice resulted in the selection of an assemblage 
of characters, Avhich united the first order of capacity, intelligence, 
and legal research, to a preponderance of the rankest revolutionary 
principles. Suitable provisions were added, to render the execution 
of a work of such magnitude and difficulty, as easy and expedi- 
tious as practicable ; and such was the importance attached to the 
result of their laljors, that the Assembly excused Mr. Wythe from 



146 LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINION'S 

his attendance in Congress, to secure his undivided co operatioiT, 
Having accepted the arduous and responsible charge, the Commit- 
tee of Revisors immediately came to an agreement, to meet at 
Fredericksburg, in January ensuing, to settle the plan of operation, 
and to distribute the work. The foundation was thus laid, for en- 
abling the great republican lawgiver, to pursue his system of reform, 
so auspiciously commenced, in all the latitude of his long cherished 
and well expressed purpose, — ' with a single eye to reason, and the 
good of mankind.' 

But in the midst of this brisk and bold-spirited action of the in- 
cipient popular Administration, an irregularity occurred, which, had 
it been permitted to prevail, would have been a standing evidence, 
of the incapacity of man for self-government. The autumn of '76, 
was one of the darkest and most distressing periods of the Revolu- 
tion. The courage of the country seemed to relapse into a tempo- 
rary panic. The fortitude of the Virginia Legislature, fell for a 
season ; and in a moment of terror and despondency, the demented 
project was seriously meditated of creating a Dictator, investeiJ 
with every power, legislative, executive and judiciary, civil and 
military, of life and of death. The scheme originated with the 
aristocratic portion of the House ; and produced an exacerbation of 
temper which menaced a violent dissolution of the body. A dis- 
crimination of political sentiment was developed by the event, 
which before, was deemed incredible among the members of that he- 
roic Legislature. The republican and the monarchist stood unveiled, 
as if by the power of magic ; and such was the discrepancy of opinion 
and of honest zeal, — for no one has attempted to impeach the motives 
of either party, — that they walked the streets on different sides. It 
was on this occasion, that Col. Archibald Cary, mover of the cele- 
brated resolutions of Independence, now Speaker of the Senate, 
manifested a patriotic sternness, which has placed him in history, 
along side of a Cato and a Brutus.* Meeting Col. Syme, the 
step- brother of Patrick Henry, in the lobby of the House, during 
the agitation, he accosted him with great fierceness, in the following 
terms : — " I am told that your brother wishes to be Dictator : tell 
him from me, that the day of his appointment, shall be tlie day of 
his death, — for he shall feel my dagger in his heart, before the sun 



*Girardin, p.l92. 



OP THOMAS JEFFERSON. 147 

set of that day."* The feeUngs excited m the mind of Mr. Jeffer- 
son, who was eminently instrumental in crushing the parricidal 
project, may be inferred from that nervous and overpowering devel- 
opment of its nature and tendency, whicli he recorded, a few 
years after, as an everlasting warning to his countrymen. The 
following is an extract. 

" One, who entered into this contest, from a pure love of liberty, 
and a sense of injured rights, avIio determined to make every sac- 
rifice, and to meet every danger, for the re establishment of those 
rights, on a firm basis, who did not mean to expend his blood and 
substance, for the w^retched purpose of changing this master for 
that, but to place the powers of governing him, in a plurality of 
hands of his own choice, so that the corrupt will of no one man, 
might in future oppress him, must stand confounded and dismayed, 
when he is told, that a consideral^le portion of that plurality, had 
meditated the surrender of them, into a single hand, and, in lieu 
of a limited monarchy, to deliver him over to a despotic one ! How 
must he find his efforts and sacrifices abused and baffled, if he may 
still, by a single vote, be laid prostrate at the feet of one man ? In 
God's name, from whence have they derived this power ? Is it from 
our ancient laws ? None such can be produced. Is it from any 
principle in our new constitution, expressed or implied ? Every 
lineament of that, expressed or implied, is in full opposition to it. 
Its fundamental principle is, that the State shall be governed as a 
Commonwealth. It provides a republican organization, proscribes 
under the name of prerogative, the exercise of all powers undefined 
by the laws ; places on this basis, the whole system of our laws ; 
and by consolidating them together, chuses that they should be left to 
stand or fall together, never providing for any circumstances, nor 
admitting that such could arise, wherein either should be suspended, 
no, not for a moment. Our ancient laws expressly declare, that 
those who are but delegates themselves, shall not delegate to others, 
powers, which require judgment and integrity in theii" exercise. — 
Or was this proposition moved, on a supposed right in the movers 
of abandoning their posts in a moment of distress ? The same 
laws forbid the abandonment of that post, even on ordinary occa- 
sions : and much more, a transfer of their powers into other hands, 
and other forms, without consulting the people. They never admit 
the idea, that these, like sheep or cattle, may be given from hand 
to hand, without an appeal to their own wiU. Was it from the 
necessity of the case ? Necessities which dissolve a government, 
do not convey its authority to an oligarchy or a monarchy. They 



*Allhough it was generally supposed that Mr. Henry, then Gov. of the State, 
was the person in view for the Dictatorship, yet there is no evidence that ha 
was implicated in the scheme himself, or had any knowledge of it. 



148 LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

throw back, into the hands of the people, the powers they had del- 
egated, and leave them as individuals to shift for themselves. A 
leader may ofier, but not impose himself, nor lie imposed on them. 
Much less can their necks be submitted to his sword, their breath 
to be held at his will, or caprice. The necessity which should operate 
these tremendous effects, should at least be palpable and irresisfeable. 
* * * In this State alone, did there exist so little virtue, that fear 
was to be fixed in the hearts of the people, to become the mo- 
tive of their exertions, and the principle of their government ? The 
very thought alone, was treason against the people ; was treason 
against mankind in general; rivetting for ever the chains Avhich 
bow down their necks, by giving to their oppressors a proof, which 
they would have trumpeted through the universe, of the imbecility 
of republican government, in times of pressing danger, to shield 
them from harm. Those who assume the right of giving away 
the reins of government in any case, must be sure that the herd, 
whom they hand on to the rods and hatchet of the dictator, Avill lay 
their heads on the block, when he shall nod to them. But if our 
Assemblies supposed such a resignation in the people, I hope they 
mistook their character. I am of opinion, that the government, in- 
stead of being braced and invigorated for greater exertions, under 
their difficulties, \vould have been thrown back upon the bimgling 
machinery of county committees for administration, till a con- 
vention could have been called, and its wheels again set into reg- 
ular motion. What a cruel moment was this, for creating such 
an embarrassment, for putting to the proof, the attachment of our 
countrymen, to republican government ?" 

On the 13th of January, 1777, the committee appointed to Re- 
vise the Laws, assembled at Fredericksburg, agreeably to previous 
arangement, to settle the general principles of execution, and to dis- 
tribute the labor. In relation to the first business of the consulta- 
tion, the primary question was, 'whether they should propose to 
abolish the whole existing system of laws, and prepare a new and 
complete Institute, or preserve the general system, and only modify 
it to the present state of things.' Mr. Pendleton, contrary to his 
usual disposition in favor of ancient things, was for the former 
proposition, in Avhich he was joined by Mr. Lee. To this it w^as 
objected by Mr. Jeffei'son, that to abrogate the whole system, would 
be a bold measure, and probably far beyond the views of the Legis- 
lature ; that they had been in the practice of revising, fiom time to 
time, the laws of the Colony, omitting the expired, the repealed, 
and the obsolete, amending only those detained, and probably 
now meant they should do the same, only including the British stat' 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON, 149 

r\tes as well as our own ; that to compose a new Institute, like those 
of Justinian and Bracton, or that of Blackstone, which was the 
inodel proposed by Mr. Pendleton, would be an arduous undertak- 
ing, of vast research, of great consideration and judgment ; and 
when reduced to a text, from the imperfection of human language, 
and its incompetence to express distinctly every shade of idea, 
would become a subject of question and chicanery, until settled by 
repeated adjudications ; that this woidd involve us for ages in liti- 
gation, and render property uncertain, until, hke the statutes of old, 
every word had been tried and settled by numerous decisions, and 
by new volumes of reports and commentaries ; and, to be systemat- 
ical, must be the work of one hand.' This last was the opinion 
also of Mr. Wythe and Mr. Mason, and was consequently adopted as 
the rule. They then proceeded to the distribution of the labor ; upon 
which, Mr. Mason excused himself, as, being no lawyer, he felt him- 
self unqualified to participate in the execution of the work, and re- 
signed, indeed, soon after. Mr. Lee excused himself on the same 
ground, and lived but a short time longer. The whole undertak- 
ing, consequently, devolved on Mr. Jefferson, Mr. Pendleton, and 
Mr. Wythe, who divided it among themselves, in the following 
manner : — The whole Common Law, and the Statutes to the 4th 
James L — when their separate Legislature was established, — were 
assigned to Mr. Jefferson ; the British Statutes, from that period to 
the present day, to Mr. Wythe ; and the Virginia laws to Mr. Pen- 
dleton. 

As the Law of Descents and the Criminal Law fell within tlie 
portion assigned to Mr. Jefferson, in both of which he designed to 
introduce certain fundamental changes, he submitted his intentions 
to the committee, vdth a view to obtain their concurrence. First, 
with respect to Descents, he proposed to abolish the law of Primo- 
geniture, and to make real estate descendible in equal partition to 
the next of kin, as personal property was, by the statute of distribution. 
Mr. Pendleton objected to the plan, and insisted «pon preserving 
the right of primogeniture entire ; but finding be could not main- 
tain the whole, he proposed to adopt the Hebrew principle, and give 
a double portion to the elder son. In reply, Mr. Jefferson observed, 
" that if the elder son could eat twice as mucli, or do double work, 
it might be a natural evidence of his right to a double portion ; but 
being on a par, in his powers and wants, Avith his Ijrothers and sis- 

14 



150 LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

ters, he should be on a par also in the partition of the patrimony." 
The argument was as coiichisive as it was characteristic ; and, the 
other members of the committee concurring with him, the principle 
was adopted. 

On the subject of the Criminal Law, he proposed, as a fundamen- 
tal rule, that the punishment of death should be abohshed, in all 
cases, except for treason and murder. The extraordinary humani- 
ty of this proposition, is illustrated by the fact, that at this time, the 
penal code of Great Britain comprehended more than two hundred 
offences, besides treason and murder, punishalile by hanging ; ma- 
ny of which were of so venial a nature as scarcely to deserve flagel- 
lation. The innovation recommended would sweep from the parent 
code, all its cruel and sanguinary features, without impairing its en- 
ergy, as modern experience has proved, and present an example to 
mankind, of wise and philanthropic legislation, which of itself would 
be enough to immortalize the Revolution. The proposition was ap- 
proved by the committee ; and for all felonies, under treason and 
murder, it was agreed to suljstitute, in the room of capital punish- 
ment, hard labor in the public works, and, in some cases, the lex tali- 
onis, or law of retaliation. With the last mentioned substitute, Mr, 
Jefferson was dissatisfied, but acquiesced in the decision of the 
board. "How this revolting principle," says he, " came to obtain 
our approbation, I do not remember. There remained, indeed, in 
our laws, a vestige of it, in a single case of a slave. It was the Eng- 
lish law, in the time of the Anglo-Saxons, copied probably from the 
Hebrew law of 'an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth,' and it was the 
law of several ancient people ; but the modern mind had left it far 
in the rear of its advances." Having decided upon these general 
principles, as the basis of revision, they repaired to their respective 
homes, to accomplish the magnificent design. 

During the years 1777 and 8, the anxieties and agitations of the 
war weighed so heavily and constantly upon the Legislature, that 
little attention could be s^pared to advancing the progress of pohtical 
reform. Mr. JefTerson continued a meml^er, Ijut in obedience to 
more pressing urgencies, suspended, in great part, the ruling pur- 
pose of his mind, and buried himself in the external concerns of rev- 
olution. In all the practical details of legislation, he contrilsuted his 
full quota of service ; but their volume prevents their incorporation, 
.to any amount, into this work. Not a moment was passed unen>- 



OP THOMAS JEFFERSON. 151 

ployed. Every interval which could be safely abstracted from his 
duties in the Legislature, was devoted to the preparation of the Re- 
vised Code of Virginia, or to a vigilant cu-cumspection of the nation- 
al affairs. 

The following letter to Dr. Franklin, in Paris, evinces the tri- 
umphant satisfaction with which he contemplated the establishment 
of republicanism on the ruins of monarchy, in his native State, as 
well as the anxiety and zeal which he carried into every depart- 
ment of the public service. It is the fourth, in date, of his pubhshed 
correspondence. 

" Virgina, August 13, 1777, 
" Honorable Sir, — ^I forljear to write you news, as the time of Mr. 
Shore's departure being uncertain, it might be old before you receive 
it, and he can, in person, possess you of all we have. With respect 
to the State of Virginia in particular, the people seem to have laid 
aside the monarchical, and taken up the republican government, 
with as much ease as would have attended their throwing off an old, 
and putting on a new suit of clothes. Not a single throe has at- 
tended this important transformation. A half dozen aristocratical 
gentlemen, agonizing under the loss of pre-eminence, have some- 
times ventured their sarcasms on our political metamorphosis. They 
have been thought fitter objects of pity than of punishment. We 
are at present in the complete and c[uiet exercise of well organized 
government, save only that our courts of justice do not open till the 
fall. I think nothing can bring the security of our continent and its 
cause into danger, if we can support the credit of our paper. To 
do that, I apprehend one or two steps must be taken. Either to 
procure free trade by alliance with some naval power able to protect 
it ; or, if we find there is no prospect of that, to shut our ports totally 
to all the world, and turn our Colonies into manufactories. The 
former would be most eligible, because most conformable to the hab- 
its and wishes of our people. Were the British Court to return to 
their senses in time to seize the little advantage which still remains 
within their reach from this quarter, I judge that, on acknowledging 
oiir absolute independence and sovereignty, a connnercial treaty 
beneficial to them, and perhaps even a league of }iiutual offence and 
defence, might, not seeing the expense or consequences of such a 
measure, be approved by our people, if nothing in the mean time, 
done on your part, should prevent it. But they will continue to 
grasp at their desperate sovereignty, till every benefit short of that is 
forever out of their reach. I i\'ish my domestic situation had render- 
ed it possible for me to join you in the very honoralale charge confi- 
ded to you. Residence in a polite Court, society of literati of the 
first order, a just cause and an approving God, will add length to a 



152 LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

life for which all men pra)^, aucl none more than your most obeclieirf 
and humble servant." 

In addition to the crowd of military operations, which engaged the 
attention of the Legislature, two important transactions of a civil 
character, in both of which Mr. JefTerson took the lead, distinguish- 
ed the autumnal session of 1777. These were, the ratification of 
the Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union, proposed by Con- 
gress on the 17th of November, '7G ; and the adoption of a plau 
to dispose of the vast unappropriated lands of Virginia, on the west- 
ern waters, the avails of which to be applied to the creation of a 
sinking fund, in aid of the taxes, for discharging the pul^lic debt. 
A loan office was established, in which the waste and unpatented 
lands were registered, and sold, from time to time, on moderate 
terms, for the benefit of the State. In the present posture of affairs, 
no measure could have been proposed, more directly and widely ben- 
eficial ; it opened an incalculable resource for the support of the pub- 
lic credit. 

The May session of 1778, also, notwithstanding the importunity 
of the war, and the unremitting assiduities of military preparation, 
was distinguished by a civil transaction, which is intimately blend- 
ed with the reputation of Mr. Jefferson, and with the honor of our 
common country. We allude to the abohtion of the Slave Trade. 
The bill for this purpose^ it will be recollected, was introduced by 
him at the October session of '76, but was not acted upon finally, un- 
til the present, when a more }xirticular illustration of its merits wa? 
promised, by a historical comparison of the efforts of other nations, 
in the same benevolent sphere. The British empire has claimed 
the honor of having set the example to the world, of the renuncia- 
tion of this diabolical traffick ; and Lord Castlereagh declared, in the 
House of Commons, on the 9th of February, 1818, that on the sub- 
ject of making the slave trade punishable by law, Great Britain had 
led the way. A little attention to dates and transactions, will eluci- 
date the historical truth on this point. 

In the year 1791, Mr. Willjerforce, Avho is considered the father 
of African Abolition in England, made his first grand motion to 
that effect in the House of Commons. After a vehement and pro- 
tracted debate, in the course of which, Mr. Fox said, that "if the 
House did not, by their vote, mark to all niankind their abhorrence 
of a practice so savage, so enormous, so repugnant to all laws, hu- 



OF THOMAS JEFFRSON. 153 

mail and divine, they would consign their character to eternal in- 
famy," — the motion was lost by a consideral^le majority. The ensu- 
ing year, he renewed his proposition, with nnaljated ardor, and 
again it was rejected by the House. They nevertheless manifested 
some relaxation in their resistance to the general principle, by vot- 
ing a gradual abolition, the same year ; but the House of Lords 
refused to concur. The same vote was again carried in 1794, in 
(I^ommons, by a very thin House ; but lost with the Peers, by a 
majority of forty-five to four. Similar results attended the annual 
and indefatigable exertions of the aljolitionists, for the space of four- 
teen years ; and it was not until the 25th of March, 1807, that 
England consented to renounce the Slave Trade, by a law which 
enacted, that no vessels should clear out for slaves from any port 
within the British dominions, after the 1st of May, 1807 ; and 
that no slave should Ije landed in the Colonies after the 1st of 
March, ISOS. On the 16th of March, 1792, Denmark promulgated 
a law, which interdicted the Slave Trade on the part of Danish sub- 
jects, after the commencement of the year 1803 ; and which pre- 
scribed that all importations of slaves into the Danish dominions 
should cease at the same period. Sweden, who had never author- 
ized the trallick, consented to its prohibition in 1813; and the King 
of the Netherlands in 1814. In France, Bonaparte interdicted it 
siX)ntaneously and immediately on his return from Elba, in 1815. 
In 1816, Spain stipulated in a treaty with England, to renounce 
the trade entirely, after the 30th of March, 1820, in consideration 
of the sum of four hundred thousand pounds sterling. About the 
same time, also, a treaty was concluded by the same Power, with 
Portugal, in which she required the period of eight years to com- 
plete the work of abolition, together with certain material changes 
in the commercial relations of the two countries.* 

From the foregoing statement, it appears, that the high honor 
of having set the example in the magnanimous work of African 
Abolition, belongs clearly and aljsolutely to America. That Vir- 
ginia was the firsi sovereign and independent State, herself a slave 
holding community, which renounced the nefarious commerce ; 
that she preceded Great Britain twenty-nine years, and the other 
principal, slave dealing Powers in Europe, except Denmark, more 



Walsh's Appeal, pp. 320—364, 

14* 



154 LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

than thirty-five years ; and that among the multitude of statesmen 
and philanthropists, whose praises have been heralded through the 
universe, and deservedly so, for their splendid successes in this spe- 
cies of legislation, the merit of priority, and of self-denying patri- 
otism, attaches irresistably and incontestibly to Mr. Jefferson. The 
Bill which he sulDmitted to the Legislature, and which finally re- 
ceived their sanction, prohibited, under heavy penalties, the intro- 
duction of any slave mto Yirginia, by land or by water ; and de- 
clared, that every slave imported contrary thereto, should be imme- 
diately free ; excepting such as might belong to persons emigrating 
from the other States, or be claimed by discount, devise, or mar- 
riage, or be at that time, the actual property of any citizen of the 
Commonwealth, residing in any other of the United States, or be- 
long to travellers making a transient stay, and carrying their slaves 
away with them. The circumstance ought not to be overlooked, 
that this important triumph w^as achieved amid the turbvilence and 
anxiety of Revolution ; thus exhibiting the sublime spectacle of a 
people legislating for the hberties of another and distant continent, 
before the recovery of their own. The example was followed up 
by Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island, 
in the years 1780, W, '88 ; and in 1794 the Congress of the Uni- 
ted States interdicted the trade from all the ports of the Union, 
under severe penalties. Thus was the work of al)olition finally 
consummated in America, and a great step taken towards eradica- 
ting the inveterate and hydra-headed evil. The cause of emanci- 
2>ation is a very ditTeient subject. We have already noticed the 
opinions, and the official labors of Mr. Jefferson upon that point ; 
his future and indefatigable efforts in the same cause, diffused, as 
they are, tluough his v/hole life, will progi-essively develope them- 
selves in the seqviel. 

In the month of February, 1779, the Committee of Revisors, 
having completed their respective tasks, convened at Williamsjjurg, 
to review, approve, and consolidate them into one Report. They 
came together day after day, and examined critically their several 
parts, scrutinizing and amending, until they had agreed on the 
whole. They had, in this work, embodied all the Common Law 
which it was thought necessary to alter, all the British Statutes, 
from Magna Charta to the present day, and all the laws of Vir- 
ginia, from the establishment of their separate Legislature to the 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 155 

present timej which they thought should be retained, within the 
compass of one hundred and Uventy-six bills, making a printed 
foho of ninety pages only. A monument of codification, upon the 
republican model, almost incredible at that period ! The whole of 
this herculean labor, the major part of w^hich fell to Mr. Jeifcrson, 
was accomplished at detached and hurried intervals, amidst the 
complicated occupations and anxieties of the times, within the 
brief space of two years. In the execmtion of his part, Mr. Jeffer- 
son observed a rule, in relation to style, which may appear rather 
odd to the modern draughtsman. In reforming the ancient stat- 
utes, he preserved the diction of the text ; and in all new draughts, 
he avoided the introduction of modern technicalities, and adopted 
the sample of antiquity ; which, from its greater simplicity, would 
allow less scope for the chicanery of the lawyers, and remove from 
among the people, numberless liabilities to litigation. Against the 
labored phraseology of modern statute.^, he has entered an amusing 
protest. ' Their verbosity,' says he, 'their endless tautologies, their 
involutions of case within case, and parenthesis within parenthesis, 
and their multiplied efforts at certainty, by saids and aforesaids, 
by ors and by ands, to make them more plain, have rendered them 
really more perplexed and incomprehensible, not only to common 
readers, but to the lawyers themselves.' 



CHAPTER VI. 

On the 18th of June, 1779, the Committee of Revisors commu- 
nicated their Report to the General Assembly, accompanied by a 
letter to the Speaker, signed by Mr. Jefferson and Mr. Wythe, and 
authorized by Mr. Pendleton. 

The Revised Code was not enacted in a mass, as was contem- 
plated ; the minds of the Legislature were not prepared for so ex- 
tensive a transition, at once, and the violence of the times afforded 
little leisure for the business of metaphysical discussion and training. 
Some Bills were taken out, occasionally, from time to time, and 
passed ; but the main body of the work was not entered upon, un- 
till after the general peace, in 1785 ; " when," says Mr. Jefferson, 



156 LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

" by the unwearied exertions of Mr. Madison, in opposition to the 
endless quibbles, chicaneries, perversions, vexations, and delays of 
lawyers and denii-lawyers, most of the bills were passed by the 
Legislature, with little alteration." The distinguished cotemporary, 
who is represented as having had so important an agency in car- 
ry in «• this code into operation, has added verbal testimony of the 
uncommon estimate which he put upon its merits. " It has" says 
he, " been a mine of legislative wealth, and a model of statuto- 
ry composition, containing not a single superflnoj/^ word, and 
prefer ing always words and phrases of a meaning fixed as much 
as possible by oracular treatises, or solemn adjudications."* 

In preparing this work, Mr. Jefferson improved the opportunity 
to push his favorite system of reform into every branch and fibre 
of administration, which could be reached through that avenue. 
The principal innovations which he made upon the established or- 
der of things, were the following : 

1. The Repeal of the Law of Entails, which, though separately 
enacted at the first republican session, he incorporated into the Re- 
vised Code. 

2. The Abrogation of the right of Primogeniture, and the equal 
division of mheritances among" all the children, or other represen- 
tatives in equal degree. 

3. The Assertion of the right of Expatriation, or a repul^lican 
definition of the rules wheteby aliens may become citizens, and 
citizens make themselves aliens. 

4. The Establishment of Rehgious Freedom upon the broadest 
foundation. 

5. The Emancipaticfla of all Slaves born after the passage of 
the act, and deportation at a proper age — not carried into effect. 

6. The Abolition of Capital Punishment in all cases, except 
those of treason and murder ; and the graduation of punishments 
to crimes throughout, upon the principles of reason and humanity — 
enacted with amendments. 

7. The Establishrtient of a systematical plan of General Educa- 
tion, reaching all classes of citizens, and adapted to every grade of 
capacity — not canied into effect. 



* Letter to S. H. Smith, 1827. 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 157 

The first of these prominent features of the Revival, has already 
been considered at sufficient length. 

The second in the catalogue, holds an eminent rank among the 
ancient and venerable foundations of republicanism. It overturn- 
ed one of the most arbitrary and unrighteous, am.ong the multiplied; 
institutions, which have been permitted to evict the laws of God 
and the order of nature, from the social systeius of mankind. The 
principle of Primogeniture was a feudal engraftment upon the an- 
cient common law of England, introduced by William the Con- 
queror, with the host of kindred burthens and restrictions ; and as 
it formed the main pillar of the military despotisms in barbarian 
Scandinavia, so in civilized England, it constituted the grand arte- 
ry of a hereditary and heavy bearing oligarchy. liike the law of 
entails, it operated to perpetuate the soil and wealth of the king- 
dom in single lines of faniiUes, and to create an artificial nobility, 
founded on the mere circumstance of birth, to the exclusion from all 
power and place, of the real nobility of talent and virtue, which 
nature lias wisely ordered for the direction of human aflairs. It 
did not escape the penetration of Mr. Jefferson, that the existence 
of such a principle, in a republican government, was a political 
solecism ; on the extinction of which, depended the consisience 
and stability of the whole structure. The aristocracy of Virginia 
opposed the innovation with the usual pertinacity, which marked 
their adherence to the ancient privileges of the order ; Ijut the 
bill was finally carried, in 1785, and forms the present lav.- of De- 
scents in that distinguished Commonwealth. 

The law on the subject of Expatriation, established the republi- 
can doctrine on that cardinal and much controverted principle of 
revolution. The original opinions of the Author, in reference to 
this question, from the earUest daw3i of colonial resistance, with 
the singular discrepancy between them and those of his leading 
compatriots, have been illustrated, in a preceding chapter, by an 
appeal to the written testimony of that period. Heterodox and 
presumptuous as his rights of colonization were deemed by the po- 
litical doctors of tlic first phasis of the Revolution, the public mind 
had now approximated so nearly to the same point, as to author- 
ize the attempt to establish them upon a legal basis. The bill for 
this purpose, was taken up separately, and carried, on the 26th of 
June, '79, principally through the exertions of George Mason, into 



158 LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

whose hands the Author had committed it, on his retiring from 
the Legislature, tlie first of that month. After stating the condi- 
tions of naturahzation, and declaring who shall be deemed citizens, 
and who aUens, on terms extremely liberal and democratic, the 
act goes on to prescribe : " And in order to preserve to the citizens 
of this Commonwealth that natural right, icliich all men have, 
of rehnquishing the country, in which birth or other accident may 
have thrown them, and seeking subsistence and happiness where- 
soever they may be able, or may hope to find tliem ; and to de- 
clare, uneciuivocally, what circumstances shall be deemed evidence 
of an intention in any citizen to exercise that right : It is enac- 
ted and declared," &c. Having defined the necessary circumstan- 
ces of evidence, and the mode of proceeding thereon, the act con- 
cludes by giving to all free white inhabitants of other States, ex- 
cept paupers and fugitives from justice, the same rights, privileges 
and inununities, as belong to the free citizens of the Commonwealth, 
and the liberty of free ingress and egress to and from the same ; 
reserving, however, the right and authority of retaining persons 
guilty, or charged with the commission, of any high crime or mis- 
demeanor in another State, and of delivering them over to the au- 
thorUiois of the State from which tbey fled, upon demand of the Gov- 
ernor or executive power of such State. Speaking of this act, the 
Continuator of Burk's History of Virginia, remarks : 

" Its operation has been superseded by subsec[uent institutions ; 
but that philanthropy which opened, in Virginia, an asylum to in- 
dividuals of any nation not at open war with America, upon their 
removing to the State to reside, and taking an oath of fidelity ; and 
that respect for the natural and social rights of men, which lays no 
restraints whatever on expatriation, and claims the allegiance of citi- 
zens, so long only as they are willing to retain that character, cannot 
be forgotten. The legislators of Virginia well knew, that the strong- 
est hold of a government on its citizens, is that affection which ra- 
tional liberty, mild laws, and protecting institutions never fail to pro- 
duce ; especially, when physical advantages march in front with po- 
litical blessings, and industry and worth are perennial sources of 
comfort and respectability." 

The act for the establishment of Religious Freedom, is perhaps 
the most mteresting feature in the Revised Code. With the single 
exception of the Declaration of Independence, it is the most celebra- 
ted of the author's productions, and the one to which himself always 
recurred with the highest pride and satisfaction. The preamble 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 159 

which ushers in the act, demonstrates, with unrivaled ^andeur, 
and with the emphasis of mathematical certainty, the premise up- 
on which the stupendous proposition was founded; "and the disci- 
ple of truth," says a writer,* "on beholding this temple of refuge, 
must feel a holier awe from the magnificence of the vestibule." 
Taldng into consideration the infancy of political science, at that pe- 
riod, the feeble advance?, in particular, which had been made on the 
subject of rehgious liberty, the bigoted adhesion of the mind to tra- 
ditional scruples in spiritual concerns, and the high fermentation of 
the Church party, smarting under the recent loss of government 
power and patronage, the erection, by law, of this memorable bul- 
wark of human freedom, may be regarded as the proudest triumph 
of reason and philosophy, of which that, or any other age, can boast. 
The following is the Preamble, with the accompanying Act. 

" Whereas Almighty God hath created the mind free ; that all 
attempts to influence it by temporal punishments or burthens, or by 
civil incapacitations, tend only to beget habits of hypocrisy and mean- 
ness, and are a departure from the plan of the Holy Author of our reli- 
gion, who being Lord both of body and mind, yet chose not to propa- 
gate it by coercions on either, as was in his Almighty power to do ; that 
the impious presumption of legislators and rulers, civil as well as eccle- 
siastical, who, being themselves but fallible and uninspired men, 
have assumed dominion over the faith of others, setting up their 
own opinions and modes of thinking, as the only true and infallible, 
and as such, endeavoring to impose them on others, hath establish- 
ed and maintained false religious over the greatest part of the world, 
and through all time ; that to compel a man to furnish contribu- 
tions of money for the propagation of opinions which he disbeheves, 
is sinful and tyrannical ; that even the forcing him to support this 
or that teacher of his own religious persuasion, is depriving him of 
the comfortable liberty of giving his contributions to the particular 
pastor, whose morals he would make his pattern, and w^hose powers 
he feels most persuasive to righteousness, and is withdrawing from 
the ministry those temporary rewards, which, proceeding from an 
approbation of their personal conduct, are an additional incitement 
to earnest and unremitting labors for the instruction of mankind ; 
that our civil rights have no dependence upon our religious opinions, 
any more than our opinions in physics or geometry ; that therefore 
the proscribing any citizen as unworthy the pubhc confidence, by 
laying upon him an incapacity of being called to offices of trust and 
emolument, unless he profess or renounce this or that religious opin- 
ion, is depriving him injuriously of those privileges and advantages, 

* S. H. Smith. 



160 LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

to which in common with his fellow citizens he has a natural right ; 
that it lends only to corrupt the principles of that religion it is meant 
to encourage, by bribing with a monopoly of worldly honors and 
emoluments, those who will externally profess and conform to it ; yet 
though indeed these are ciiminal who do not withstand sucli tempta- 
tion, vet neither are those innocent who lay the bait in their way ; that 
to suffer the civil magistrate to intrude his powers into the field of 
opinion, and to restrain the profession or propagation of principles on 
supposition of their ill tendency, is a dangerous fallacy, wliich at once 
destroys all religious liberty, because he being of comse judge of that 
tendency will make his opinions the rule of judgment, and approve 
or condemn the sentiments of others only as they shall square with 
or differ from his own ; that it is time enough for the rightful pur- 
poses of civil government, for its officers to interfere when principles 
break out into overt acts against peace and good order ; and finally, 
that truth is great and will prevail if left to herself, that she is the 
proper and sufficient antagonist to error, and has nothing to fear 
from the conflict, unless by human interposition disarmed of her 
natural weapons, free argument and debate, errors ceasing to be 
dangerous when it is permitted freely to contradict them : 

" Be it enacted by the General Assembly, That no man shall be 
compelled to freqvient or support any religious worship.'place, or minis- 
try, whatsoever, nor shall be en forced, restrained, molested, or burthen- 
ed in his l3ody or goods, nor shall otherwise suffer on account of his re- 
ligious opinions or belief ; but that all men shall be free to profess, 
and by argument to mamtain, their opinion in matters of religion, 
and that the same shall in no wise diminish, enlarge, or affect their 
civil capacities. 

" And though we well know that this Assembly, elected by the 
people for the ordinary purposes of legislation only, have no power 
to restrain the acts of successiA-e Assemblies, constituted with.pow- 
ers equal to our own, and that therefore to declare this act to be irre- 
vocable would be of no effect in law ; yet we are free to declare, 
and do declare, that the rights hereby asserted are of the natural 
rights of mankind, and that if any act should be hereafter passed to 
repeal the present, or to narrow its operation, suck act will be an in- 
fringement of natural right." 

The above is the form in which it received the sanction of the 
Legislatm-e, and varies somewhat from the original draught. ' The 
variations,' says the compiler of the Yirginia statutes, 'rendered the 
style less elegant, though they did not materially affect the sense.' 
The Bill was not acted upon until the year 17S5, nor carried then, 
but with considerable difficulty. 

" I had drawn it," says the author, " in all the latitude of reason 
and right. It still met with opposition ; but, with some mutilations 



GP TH6MAS JEFFERSON. 161 

III the preamble, it was finally passed ; and a singular proposition 
proved, that its protection of opinion was meant to l)e universal. 
Where the preamble declares, that coercion is a departure from the 
plan of the Holy Author of our religion, an amendment was pro- 
posed, by inserting the words 'Jesus Christ,' so that it should read, 
' a departure from the plan of Jesus Christ, the Holy Author of our 
religion ;' the insertion was rejected by a great majority, in proof 
that thej' meant to comprehend, within the mantle of its protection, 
the Jew and the Gentile, the Christian and Mahometan, the Hin- 
doo, and Infidel of every denomination." 

This celebrated Act has been the standing model of legislation 
for the security of religious freedom, in all parts of the Union, from 
that day to the present ; and there is not, we believe, a State, that 
has legislated at all upon the subject, which has not incorporated, 
either in its Constitution, or its Statutory Code, the suljstance of its 
provisions, and, in some instances, its phraseology to a considerable 
extent. 

On its promulgation, in 1785, it excited unbounded admiration, 
and was copied into every newspaper, which made any pretensions 
to liberality, with enthusiastic comments. In Europe, it produced 
a considerable sensation. It was translated into all the principal 
languages, copied into the newspapers, reviews, and encyclopedias, 
and applauded beyond measure by the statesmen and philosophers 
of the ancient world. Mr. Jefferson was in France when the in- 
telligence was received in Europe, resident Minister at the Court of 
Versailles; and in his private letters to America, of that date, frequent 
mention is made of the admkation expressed for the Act of Religious 
Freedom, and the Revised Code generally. 

In a letter to Mr. Wythe, dated Paris, August 13, 1786, he thus 
writes : 

" The European papers have armounced, that the Assembly of 
Virginia were occupied on the revisal of their code of laws. This 
with some other similar intelligence, has contributed much to con- 
vince the people of Europe, that what the English papers are con- 
stantly publishing of our anarchy, is false ; as they are sensible, 
that such a work is that of a people only, who are in perfect tran- 
quillity. Our act for freedom of religion is extremely applauded. 
The ambassadors and ministers of the several nations of Europe, 
resident at this court, have asked of me copies of it, to send to their 
sovereigns, and it is inserted at full length in several books now in 
the press; among others, in the new Encyclopedie. I think it will 
produce considerable good, even in these countries, Avliere ignorance, 

15 



162 LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

superstition, poverty, and oppression of body and mind, in every 
form, are so firmly settled on the mass of the people, that tlieir re- 
demption from them can never be hoped. If all the sovereigns of 
Europe were to set theinselves to work, to emancipate the minds of 
their subjects from their present ignorance and prejudices, and that, 
as zealously as they now endeavor the contrary, a thousand years 
would not place them on that high ground, on which our common 
people are now setting out. Ours could not have been so fairly 
placed under the control of the common sense of the people, had 
they not l)een separated from their parent stock, and kept from con- 
tamination, either from them, or the other people of the old world, 
by the intervention of so wide an ocean. To know the worth of 
this, one must see the want of it here." 

Again, in a letter to Mr. Madison, dated Paris, Dec. 16, 1786, he 
communicates the same informiition, in such a manner, that it loses 
no interest by the repetition. 

•' The Virginia act for religious freedom has been received Avith 
infinite approbation in Europe, and propagated with enthusiasm. 
I do not mean by the governments, but by the individuals who 
compose them. It has been translated into French and Italian, 
has been sent to most of the courts of Europe, and has been the 
best evidence of the falsehood of those reports, which stated us to 
be in anarchy. It is inserted in the new Encyclopedie, and is ap- 
pearing in most of the publications respecting America. In fact, it 
is comfortable to see the standard of reason at length erected, after 
so many ages, during which the human mind has been held in 
vassalage by kings, priests, and nobles : and it is honorahle for us 
to have produced the first legislature who had the courage to de- 
clare, that the reason of man may be trusted with the formation of 
his own opinions." 

The next distinguishing and fundamental change recommended 
by the Revisal, regarded the freedom of the unhappy sons of Africa ; 
and proposed, directly, the Emancipation of all Slaves born after the 
passage of the act. The Bill reported by the Revisors, did not it- 
self contain this proposition ; but an amendment containing it, was 
prepared, to be offered to the Legislature, whenever the bill should 
be taken up. ''It was thought better," says the Author, " that this 
should be kept back, and attempted only, by way of amendment." 
It was further agreed, to embrace in the residuary proposition a 
clause, directing, that the after born Slaves should continue with 
their parents to a certain age, then be brought up at the public ex- 
pense, to tillage, arts or sciences, according to their geniuses, till the 
females should be eighteen, and the males twenty-one years of age, 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON'. 163 

when they should be colonized to such place as the circumstances of 
the time should render most proper, sending them out with arms, 
implements of household and the handicraft arts, seeds, pairs of the 
useful domestic animals, (fcc. ; to declare them a free and independ- 
ent people, and extend to them our alliance and protection, till they 
should have acquired strength ; and to send vessels, at the same 
time, to other parts of the world for an equal number of white in- 
habitants, to induce whom to migrate thither, proper encourage 
ments were to be proposed. But when the Bill was taken up by 
the Legislature, in 17S5, neither Mr. Jefferson, nor Mr. Wythe, his 
chief coadjutor in the undertaking, were members ; the former be- 
ing absent on the Legation to France, and the latter, an officer of 
the judiciary department ; so the contemplated amendment was not 
proposed, and the Bill passed unaltered, being a mere digest of the 
existing laws on the subject, Avithout any intimation of a plan for 
future and general emancipation. 

If there was any one question connected with the freedom and 
happiness of mankind, on which the genius of Mr. Jefferson kin- 
dled into an extravagance, seemingly incompatible with sobriety 
and right reason, it was that of the Emancipation of Slaves. It 
was hardly possible for him, as he declared, to write and be temper- 
ate on the subject. The quotations already given to the reader, 
exhibit abundant evidence of the intensity with which he yearned, 
to use his own language, " for the moment of delivery to this op- 
pressed description of men." The following vehement exhortation 
was penned in France, on learning the passage of the Slave Bill, in 
Virginia, without the adoption of liis concerted amendment. 

" What a stupendous, what an incomprehensible machine is 
man ! who can endure toil, famine, stripes, imprisonment, and 
death itself, in vindication of his own liberty, and, the next mo- 
ment, be deaf to all those motives whose power supported him 
through his trial, and inflict on his fellow men a bondage, one hour 
of which is fraught with more misery, than ages of that which he 
rose in rebellion to oppose ! But we must await, with patience, the 
workings of an overruling Providence, and hope that that is pre- 
paring the deliverance of these our suffering brethren. When the 
measure of their tears shall be full, when their groans shall have 
involved heaven itself in darkness, doubtless a God of justice will 
awaken to their distress, and by diffusing light and hberality among 
their oppressors, or at length, by his exterminating thunder, man- 



■*5# ♦ 



1.64 LIFEj WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

if est his attention to the things of this world, and that they are 
not left to the guidance of a hlind fatality." 

The following paragraph, in allusion to the same transaction of 
the Legislature, was written at the age of seventy -seven, and fount! 
among his papers at the time of his death. Time but added em- 
phasis to his appalling predictions, and strengthened his attach- 
ment to the plan of redemption, which he originally proposed. 

" It was found that the public mind would not yet bear the pro- 
position, nor will it bear it even at this day, (1821.) Yet the day 
is not distant, when it must bear and adopt it, or worse will follow. 
Nothinsf is more ceitainlv written in the book of fate, than that 
these people are to be free ; nor is it less certain, that the two 
races,^ equally free, cannot live in the same government. Nature, 
habit, opinion have drawn indelible lines of distinction between 
them. It is still in our power to direct the process of emancipation 
and deportation, peaceably, and in such slow degree, as that the 
evil will wear oft' insensibly, and their place be, jjari passu, filled 
up by free white laborers. If, on the contrary, it is left to force it- 
self on, human nature must shudder at the prospect held up. We 
should in vain look for an example in the Spanish deportation, 
or deletion of the Moors. This precedent would fall far short of 
our case.*' 

The ' Bill for proportioning Crimes and Punishments in cases 
heretofore capital' occupies a proud niche in the temple of revolu- 
tionary reform. The changes which it proposed in the Criminal 
Code of the old world, were of the most extensive character, and 
such as modern experience has proved abundantly adequate to the 
protection and good order of society, while they saved a great 
amount of individual suffering and slaughter. The<''j*ical writer,-- 
had shaken, profoundly, the barbarous opinions which prevailed on 
the subject of penal jurisprudence ; among whom Mr. Jefferson 
mentions Beccaria, in particular, as having " satisfied the reasona- 
ble world, of the unrightfulness and inefficacy of the punishment 
of crimes by death." But no mitigation had been effected in prac- 
tice ; and the Author of this act stands before the world, as the first 
official lawgiver, who, having -dvanced to the true theory of crim- 
inal ethics, went boldly and nationally to work to incorporate it in 
the mechanism of civil government. The legitimate object of all 
punishment being, in his opinion, disciplinary, rather than vindica- 
tory, he made the reformation of the offender, the fundamental 
maxim of his theory ; and graduated his scale of penal sanctions- 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 165 

by that standaid. The punisliment of death putting this object en- 
tirely out of the question, he restrained its infliction to cases, in 
which reformation was either hopeless, or too hazardous to attempt. 
Modern codifyers and moral philosopher have, without exception, 
adopted the same principle for their guide ; and, pursuing it to 
a still greater extent, have effected still greater improvements on the 
ancient economy. It led eventually to the suggestion of the Peni- 
tentiary system, now so well tested by experience, as to have become 
nearly universal ; and the idea has of late been carried so far as to 
have brought seriously in question, the right and utility of capital 
punishment, in any case. That strong confidence in the innate vir- 
tue of man, which was so conspicuous in the character of Mr. Jef- 
ferson, and which led him to exclude the agency of force from ev- 
ery member of the body politic, which came under his control, 
placed him at once on the high and hmiiane ground, in relation to 
criminal jurisprudence, which forms a prominent object of prose- 
cution with the philanthropists and utilitarians of the present day. 
The following letter, inclosing the Bill to one of his colleagues, for 
examination, is worthy of being preserved. 

"Monticello, November 1, 1778. 
"Dear Sir — I have got through the bill ' for proportioning crimes 
and punishments in cases heretofore capital,' and now enclose it to 
you with the request that you will be so good, as scrupulously to ex- 
amine and correct it, that it may be presented to our committee, 
with as few defects as possible. In its style I have aimed at accu- 
racy, brevity, and simplicity, preserving however, the very words of 
the established law, wherever their meaning had l)een sanctioned by 
judicial decipio"is, or rendered technical by usage. The same mat- 
ter, if couched in the modern statutory language, with all its tau- 
tologies, redundancies, and circumlocutions, would have spread 
itself over many -nges, and been unintelligible to those whom it 
most concerns. Indeed, I wished to exhibit a sample of reforma- 
tion in the barbarous style, into which modern statutes have de- 
generated from their ancient simplicity. And I must pray you to 
be as watchful over what I have not said, as what is said ; for the 
omissions of this bill have all thei positive meaning. I have 
thought it better to drop, in sdence, the i^ws Ave mean to discontinue, 
and let them be swept away by the general negative words of this, 
than to detail them in clauses of express repeal. By the side of 
the text I have written the notes I made, as I went along, for the 
benefit of my own memory. They may serve to draw your atten- 
tion to questions, to which the expressions or the omissions of the 

15* 



168 LIFE, WRITINGS. AND OPlNIONS^ 

text may give rise. The extracts from the Anglo-Saxon laws, the 
sources of the Common Law, I wrote in their original, for my own 
satisfaction ; but I have added Latin, or liberal English translations- 
From the time of Canute to that of the Magna Charta, you know, 
the text of our statutes is preserved to us in Latin only, and some 
old French. 

1 have strictly observed the scale of punishments settled by the 
Committee, without being entirely satisfied with it. The lex tali- 
onis, although a restitution of the Common Law, to the simplicity 
of which we have generally found it so advantageous to return, will 
be revolting to the humanized feelings of modern times. An eye 
for an eye, and a hand for a hand, will exhibit spectacles in exe- 
cution, whose moral effect would be questionable ; and even the 
memhrmn jiro membro of Bracton, or the punishment of the of- 
fending member, although long authorized ])y our law, for the same 
offence in a slave, has, you know, been not long since repealed, in 
coniformity with public sentiment. This needs reconsideration." 

The Bill was brought forward in the Legislature, by Mr. Madi- 
son,, in 1785, and lost by a single vote. The general intelligence 
of the country had not then progressed to a point,which was prepared 
to sanction the opinions of the Re visor on the subject of Capita! 
Punishment. But it was well, perhaps, on the whole, that the Bill 
was rejected ; for it enabled the Author to effect a substantial im- 
provement on his original plan : to wit, the substitution of labor ht 
.wlitary confinement, for labor in the public works. The latter, it 
will be recollected, had been adopted by the Revisors, in the room 
of punishment by death ; but it had not then been essayed by any 
actual experiment. Afterwards, in 1786, the experiment was tried 
in Pennsylvania, for two years, without approbation, when it was 
followed by the Penitentiary system, on the principle of labor in 
confinement, which succeeded beyond calculation. About the same 
time Mr. Jefferson, in France, had heard of a ^benevolent society 
iu England, which had been indulged by the government in an 
experiment of the effect of labor in solitary confinement, on some 
of their criminals ; which experiment was proceeding auspiciously. 
The same idea had been suggested in France, and an Architect of 
Lyons liad proposed a well contrived plan of a Prison, on the prin- 
ciple of solitary confinement. Attentive to these valuable hintsy 
Mr. Jefferson procured a drawing of the Prison proposed by this 
Architect ; and having a little before been written to by the Gov- 
emoc of Virginia, for a plan of a Capitol and Prison for that StatCj 



OF TriOMAS JEFFERSON* 167 

he sent him the Lyons drawing, instead of a plan of a comition 
prison ; " in the hope," says he, " that it would suggest the idea of 
labor in soUtary confinement, instead of that on the pubHc works, 
which we had adopted in our Revised Code." This was in June, 
1786. The principle, accordingly, but not the exact form of the 
drawing, was preserved in carrying the plan into execution, by the 
erection of what is now called the Penitentiary, at Richmond. In 
the mean time, the increasing intelligence and sensibility of the 
age were preparing the way for the general sweep of capital revo- 
cations, recommended by the Revisors ; and the public opinion was 
ripening, by reflection, and by the example of Pennsylvania, for the 
adoption of the newly essayed substitute. 

In 1798, therefore, after the steady humanization of ten years,, 
the Legislature resumed the subject of the Criminal Law, and pas- 
sed the Bill reported by Mr. Jefferson, with the substitution of soli- 
tary, in the room of public, labor. The diction of the text, also, 
was modernized, which the Author had scrupulously avoided, to 
prevent new questions, by new expressions ; and, instead of the 
settled distinctions of murder and manslaughter, preserved by him, 
the new terms of murder in the first and second degree, were in- 
troduced. These alterations were probably not for the better, as 
they gave occasion for renewed questions of definition. The Bill 
was brought forward the last time, by Mr. G. K. Taylor, who was 
chiefly instrumental in procuring its passage, with the amendments. 
The following brief preamble to the act, gives a forcible view of 
the general idea of the Author, 

"Whereas,, it frequently happens that wicked and dissolute men. 
resigning themselves to the dominion of inordinate passions, commit 
violations on the lives, liberties, and property of others, and, the se- 
cure enjoyment of these having principally induced men to enter 
into society, government would be defective in its principal purpose, 
were it not to restrain such criminal acts, by inflicting due punish- 
ments on those who perpetrate them ; but it appears at the same 
time, equally deducible from the purposes of society, that a member 
thereof, committing an inferior injury, does not wholly forfeit the 
protection of his fellow-citizens, but, after suffering a punishment in 
proportion to his offence, is entitled to their protection from all greater 
pain, so that it becomes a duty in the Legislature to arrange, in 
a proper scale, the crimes which it may be necessary for them to re- 
press, and to adjust thereto a corresponding gradation of punish- 
ments. 



168 LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

" And whereas, the reformation of offenders, thougli an ohject 
worthy the attention of the laws, is not effected at all by capital 
punishments, which exterminate, instead of reforming, and should 
be the last melancholy resource against those whose existence is 
become inconsistent with the safety of their fellow-citizens, which 
also weaken the State, by cutting off so many avIio, if reformed, 
might be restored sound members to society, who, even under a 
course of correction, might be rendered useful in various labors for 
the pubhc, and would be living and long continued spectacles to 
deter others from committing the like ofi'ences. 

'• And forasmuch as the experience of all ages and countries hath 
shown, that cruel and sanguinary laws defeat their own purpose, 
by engaging the benevolence of mankind to withhold prosecutions, 
to smother testimony, or to hsten to it with bias, when, if the pun- 
ishment were only proportioned to the injury, men would feel it their 
inchnation, as well as their duty, to see tlie laws observed. 

" For rendering crimes and punishments, therefore, more propor- 
tionate to each other : 

"Be it enacted by the General Assembly," (fcc. 

We come now to consider the last, and clearly the most important 
scheme of public reformation contained in the Revised Code, form- 
ing, as it does, the entrance, and a perpetual guard, to the enjoy- 
ment of all the others. The system proposed for the Diffusion of 
Knowledge through the whole mass of the people, by extending to 
every degree of capacity, a proportional degree of education, and 
placing all upon an equal footing for obtaining the first and necessa- 
ry degrees, was an original idea ; than which nothing would seem 
more admirably contrived for the foundation of a durable and well 
ordered republic. This portion of the woi k fell more properly with- 
in the department assigned to Mr. Pendleton : but it was agreed, on 
the urgent recommendation of Mr. Jefferson, that a new and sys- 
tematical plan of universal education should be proposed, and he 
Avas requested to undertake it. He did so, preparing three Bills for 
that purpose, proposing three distinct grades of instruction, in the fol- 
lowing order : 1. Elementary schools, for all children generally, 
rich and poor, without distinction. 2. Colleges, or, as they are more 
usually styled in this country. Academies, for a middle degree of 
instmction, calculated for the common purposes of life, yet such as 
would be desirable for all who were in easy circumstances. 3. A 
University, in the room of William and Mary College, as the ulti- 
mate grade, for teaching the sciences generally, and in their highest 
desrree. 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 169 

The first and second Bills were devoted to tlie organization of 
this system ; and the third was for the estabhshment of a Pubhc 
Library and Gallery, by the appropriation of a certain sum annually, 
to the purchase of books, paintings and statues. 

The distribution and organization of the system, in all its parts, 
exhibit a model of republican equality, and harmonious arrange- 
ment. The Bill proposed the division of the State into twenty-four 
Districts, and the subdivision of these into Wards, called Hundreds, 
of five or six miles square, according to the size and population of the 
District. In each Hundred was to be established an Elementary 
School, in which should be taught reading, writing, and common 
arithmetic ; the expenses of which should be borne by the inhabit- 
ants of the County, every one in proportion to his general tax rate. 
All free children, male and female, resident in the Hundred, should 
be entitled to three years instruction at the school, free of expense, 
and to as mnch more as they chose, by paying for it. In each Dis- 
trict was to be established an Academy, or Grammar School, to be 
supported at the public expense, in w^hich should be taught the clas- 
sics, grammar, geography, and the higher branches of nvunerical 
arithmetic. 

The Bill provides further, for the annual selection of the most prom- 
ising suljjects from the Elementary schools, whose parents were 
too poor to educate them, who should be transferred to the District 
institutions, at the public expense. And from the District institu- 
tions also, a certain number annually were to be selected, of the most 
promising character, but whose parents were unable to incur the 
burthen, who should be sent on to the University, to receive the ul- 
timate degree of intellectual cultivation. Genius and worth would 
thus be sought out of every walk of hfe ; and, to adopt a favorite 
sentiment of the Author, the veritable aristocracy of nature, vrould . 
be completely prepared by the laws, for defying and defeating the 
pseudo-aristocracy of wealth and birth, in the competition for pub- 
lic trusts. The final result of the whole scheme would be the 
teaching all the children of the State reading, writing, and com- 
mon arithmetic ; turning out upon the theatre of pubhc life, a cer- 
tain number, annually, of superior genius, well instructed in Greek, 
and Latin, Grammar, Geograpliy, and the higher branches of 
Arithmetic ; turning out, also, a certain number, annually, of still 
superior parts, who, to those branches of education shall have ad- 



170 LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

ded the Sciences, in their perfection ; and the furnishing to the 
wealthier part of the people convenient schools, at which their chil 
dren might be educated, at their own expense. 

It was further in contemplation of the Author, had his system 
been carried into operation, to have imparted to the Wards, or Hun- 
dreds, all those portions of self-government, for which thej^ are best 
tjuahfied ; by confiding to them the care of their poor, their roads. 
|X)lice, elections, the nomination of jurors, administration of justice 
in small cases, and elementary exercises of miUtia ; in short, to 
have made them litde republics^ with a warden at the head of 
each, for all those concerns, which, being under their eye, the> 
would better manage, than the larger republics, of the county, oi 
State. A general call of Ward meetings by the wardens, on the 
same day throughout the State, would, at any time, embody the 
genuine sense of the people, on any required point, and present a 
forcible illustration of democratic government. The immeasurable 
utility of the proposed plan of education, cannot be comprehended 
in any way more readily, than by listening to the opinions of the 
Author, conveyed in his own language. 

'■ The general objects of this law are to provide an education adapt- 
ed to the years, to the capacity, and the condition of every one, and 
directed to their freedom and happiness. Specific details Avere not 
proper for the law. These must be the business of the visitors en- 
trusted with its execution. The first stage of this education being 
the schools of the Hundreds, wherein the great mass of the people 
will receive their instruction, the principal foundations of future or- 
der will be laid here. Instead, therefore, of putting the Bible and 
Testament into the hands of the children, at an age when their 
judgments are not sufficiently matured for religious enquiries, their 
memories may here be stored with the most useful facts from Gre- 
cian, Roman, European and American history. The first elements 
of morality too, may be instilled into their minds ; such as, when 
further developed, as their judgments advance in strength, may 
teach them how to work out their own greatest happiness, by shew- 
ing them that it does not depend on the condifion ot life in which 
chance has placed them; but is alwav=5 die result of a good con- 
science, good health, occupation, and freedom in all just pursuits. 
Those, whom either the w ealth of their parents, or the adoption of 
the State, shall destine to higher degrees of learning, will go on t(^ 
the grammar schools, which constitute the next stage, there to be 
instructed in the languages. The learning Greek and Latin, 1 am 
told, is going into disuse in Europe. I know not what their man- 
ners faid occupations may call for ; but jt would be very ill-judged 



OF THOafc^S JEFFERSON. 171 



in us to follow their example in this instance. There is a certain 
period of life, say from eight to fifteen or sixteen years of age, when 
the mind, like tlie body, is not yet firm enough for laborious and 
close operations. If applied to such, it falls an early victim to pre- 
mature exertion : exhibiting, indeed, at first, in these young and 
tender subjects, the flattering appearance of their being men while 
they are yet children, but ending in reducing them to be children 
when they should be men. The memory is then most susceptible 
and tenacious of impressions ; and the learning of languages being 
chiefly a work of memory, seems precisely fitted to the powers of 
this period, which is long enough too, for acquiring the most useful 
languages, ancient and modern. I do not pretend that language is 
science : it is only an instrument for the attainment of science. But 
that time is not lost which is employed in providing tools for future op- 
eration : more especially, as in this case, the books put into the hands 
of the youth, for this purpose, may be such as will at the same time im- 
press their minds with useful facts and good principles. If this period 
be suffered to pass in idleness, the mind becomes lethargic and impo- 
tent, as would the body it inhabits, if unexercised during the same 
time. The sympathy between body and mmd, during their rise, 
progress, and decline, is too strict and obvious to endanger our being 
misled, while we reason from the one to the other. As soon as they 
are of sufficient age, it is supposed they will be sent on from the 
Grammar schools to the University, which constitutes our third and 
last stage, there to study those sciences which may be adapted to 
their views. By that part of our plan, which prescribes the selec- 
tion of the youths of genius from among the classes of the poor, we 
hope to avail the State of those talents which nature has sown as lib- 
erally among the poor as the rich, but which perish without use, if 
not sought for and cultivated. But of the views of this law, none 
is more important, none more legitimate, than that of Tendering the 
people the safe, as they are the ultimate guardians of their own lib- 
erty. For this purpose, the reading of the first stage, where they re- 
ceive their whole education, is proposed, as has been said, to be chief- 
ly historical. History, by apprizing them of the past, will enable 
them to judge of the future; it will avail them of the experience of 
other times and other nations ; it will qualify them as judges of the 
actions and designs of men ; it will enable them to know ambition 
under every disguise it may assume ; and knowing it, to defeat its 
views. In every government on earth are some traces of hmnan 
weakness, some germ of corruption and degeneracy, which cunning 
will discover, and wickedness insensibly open, cultivate and im- 
prove. Every government degenerates when trusted to the rulers 
of the people alone. The people themselves, then, are its only safe 
depositories. And to render them safe, their minds must be improv- 
ed to a certain degree. This, indeed, is not all that is necessary, 
though it be essentially necessary. An amendment of our constitu- 



172 LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

•tioii must here come in aid of the pubhc education. The influence 
over government must be shared among all the people. If every 
individual which composes their mass, participates of the ultimate 
authority, the government will be safe ; because the corrupting the 
whole mass v/ill exceed any private resources of wealth : and public 
ones cannot be provided but by levies on the people. In this case, 
every man would have to pay his own price. The government of 
Great Britain has been corrupted, because but one man in ten has a 
right to vote for meml^ers of Parliament. The sellers of the govern- 
ment, therefore, get nine-tenths of their price clear. It has been 
thought that corruption is restrained by confining the right of suf 
frage to a few of the wealthier of the people ; but it would be more 
efl'ectually restrained, by an extension of that right, to such num- 
bers as would bid defiance to the means of corruption." 

The three several Bills, for the Ward schools, the District institu- 
tions, the University, and for the establishment of a Library and 
Gallery, were all brought forward in the Legislature, in the year 
1796. The first only was acted upon, and finally adopted ; but 
with an amendment which completely defeated it. They inserted 
a provision leaving it to the Court of each county, to determine for 
itself, when the act should be carried into execution. The eflfect 
of the bill being to throw on w^ealth the education of the poor, and 
the Justices, who were of the wealthier class, being unwilling to 
incur the responsibility, the plan was not suffered to commence in 
a single county. The bill which proposed erecting the College of 
William and Mary into a University, encountered insuperable im- 
pediments at the threshold. The present College was an estab- 
lishment purely of the Church of England ; the Visitors were re- 
quired to be all of that Church ; the Professors to subscribe its 
thirty-nine Articles ; the Students to learn its Catechism ; and one 
of its fundamental objects was declared to be, to raise up ministers 
for that Church. The' religious jealousies, therefore, of the dis- 
senters took alarm, legt the enlargement of the institution might 
give an ascendency to the Anglican sect, and refused acting at all 
upon the bill. The Bill for the establishment of a Library and 
Gallery, received a similar fate ; and thus no part of this grand 
and beneficial system was ever permitted to take effect. 

The unaccountable insensibility of the people of Virginia to the 
benefits of this noble scheme of practical reform, as manifested by 
their persevering neglect to carry it into operation, is feelingly de- 
plored by the accomplished Continuator of Burk's History of Virginia. 



OP THOMAS JEFPERSOIT- 173 

^^ Why has not the admirable bill, which, by carrying educa- 
tion to every man's door, would elicit genius and worth from their 
obscurest recesses, yet been acted upon by the great Council of 
f he State ? Is it less important than that for a reform of the penal 
code, the substance of which has since been so beneficially adopt- 
•id J If we could presume to add any thing to the luminous de- 
velopments of its impi-essive preamlile, we would oljserve, that 
the situation of Virginia cannot always be so favorable to virtue, 
liberty, and good social order, as it is at present. Population will 
increase, and inherent principles of corruption and degeneracy be 
gradually, perhaps rapidly, evolved. To counteract their operation, 
let knowledge be universally diffused — Let it become the key-stone 
of the political edifice — we mean that knowledge, which, accordiuo- 
to the true and important intent of the bill, will " render the peo- 
ple the safe, as they are the ultimate guardians of their liberties ;" 
enable the governed to control the governors, and eventually to 
become so in their turn ; in short, like the blood in the huiiian 
system, pervade, animate, and energize all the parts of the body 
politic." 

The following is the Preamble which introduces the magnifi- 
cent proposition : 

Whereas it appeareth, that the great advantages, which civilized 
and polished nations enjoy, beyond the savage and barbarous na- 
tions of the world, are principally derived from the invention and 
use of letters, by means whereof the knowledge and experience of 
past ages are recorded and tiansmitted, so that man, availing him- 
self in succession of the accumulated wisdom and discoveries of 
his predecessors, is enabled more successfully to pursue and im- 
prove, not only those arts which contribute to the support, conven- 
ience, and ornament of life, but those also, v/hich tend to illumine 
and ennoble his understanding, and his nature. 

And whereas, upon a review of the history of mankind, it seem- 
eth that however favorable republican government, founded on the 
pririciples of equal liberty, justice and order, may be to human hajv 
piness, no real stability, or lasting permanency thereof can be ra- 
tionally hoped for, if the minds of the citizens be not rendered 
liberal and humane, and be not fully impressed with the impor- 
tance of those piinciples from whence these blessings proceed : 
With a view therefore, to lay the first foundations of a system of 
education, which may tend to produce those desii"able purposes : 
Be it enacted, &c. 

Perhaps there was no one feature of the Revised Code, on which 
?vlr. Jefferson placed a more justly exalted estimate, than that wliich 
proposed the diffusion of Education universally and impartially 
among the people. Knowledge is unquestionably, to use an ex- 

16 



174 LIFE, WRITINGS, AND DPINIONS 

pression of his own, "the key-stone of the pohtical arch," in popular 
governments, and the only foundation which can be laid for per- 
manent freedom and prosperity. Upon this point he was enthusi 
astically pertinacious. His efforts were perseveringly directed to 
the attainment of the object, in the form originally proposed by 
him, on all possible occasions which subsequently ollered ; and on 
his final retirement from the theatre of pul^lic affairs, he made it 
the great business of his life. Being in France, as before stated, at 
the time the main body of the Kevisal was entered on, he was 
deprived the opportunity of raising his voice, and uttering his opin- 
ions in the Legislature, with the power and authority he had for- 
merly done ; but his letters to his friends in Virginia, of that date, 
abound with the most eloquent persuasions of the importance of 
carrying into effect those portions of the work, which he deemed most 
essential to the freedom and happiness of the people. Among these, 
the Bill under consideration occupied a prominent share of his solici- 
lude ; as is manifested by the following extract of a letter to Mr. 
Wythe, dated Paris, August 13, 1786. 

'• I think by far the most important bill in our whole code, is 
that for the diffusion of knovv^ledge among the people. No other 
sure foundation can be devised for the preservation of freedom and 
happiness. If any body thinks, that kings, nobles, or priests are 
good conservators of the public happiness, send him here. It is 
the best school in the universe to cure him of that folly. He will see 
here, with his own eyes, that these descriptions of men are an 
abandoned confederacy against the happiness of the mass of the 
people. The omnipotence of their effect cannot be better proved, 
than in this country particularly, where, notwithstanding the finest 
soil upon earth, the finest climate under heaven, and a people of 
the most benevolent, the most gay and amiable character of which 
the human form is susceptible ; where such a people, I say, sur- 
rounded l)y so many blessings from nature, are loaded with mis- 
ery by kings, nobles, and priests, and by them alone. Preach, 
my dear Sir, a crusade against ignorance : establish and improve 
the law for educating the common people. Let our countrymen 
know, that the people alone can protect us against these evils, and 
that the tax wliich will l>e paid for this purpose, is not more than 
the thousandth part of what will be paid to kings, priests and no- 
bles, who will rise up among us, if we leave the people in igno- 
rance. The people of England, I think, are less oppressed than 
here. But it needs but half an eye to see, when among them, 
that the foundation is laid in their dispositions for the establish- 
ment of a despotism. Nobility, wealth, and pomp are the objects 



OF THOMAS JEFFRSON. 175 

of tlieir admiration. They are by no means the free minded peo- 
ple, we suppose them in America. Their learned men, too, are 
few in numljer, and are less learned, and infinitely less emancipa- 
ted from prejudice than those of this country." 

Such are some of the extraordinary innovations on the establish- 
ed order of things, contained in the celebrated Rivised Code of 
Virginia, in 1779 ; of all which, Mr. Jefferson was the originator 
and draughtsman. It is impossible, at the present day, to form an 
adequate idea of this stupendous political work, or of the combined 
energies of genius and application, which it required. On the au- 
thority of Mr. Madison we are enabled to say, •' that it, perhaps, 
exacted the severest of Mr. Jefferson's public labors." It was un- 
precedented in the order of time, and stands on the page of histo- 
ry, the revered repository of the original, consecrate, foundations of 
repubhcanism. Well might his country apply to himself, the ex- 
ulting congratulation which he applied to her, in proud antithesis 
with all the world besides : " What a germ have the freemen of 
the United States planted ! And how faithfully should they cher- 
ish the parent tree at home." What a germ indeed ! the growth 
of which the human imagination can scarcely circumscribe ! 
Whose ' parent tree,' planted under the auspices of his care, and 
nourished by the genius of his philosophy, is stretching its branch- 
es higher and wider in the heavens, and striking its roots deeper 
and broader in the earth, carrying life, and strength, and the power 
of self-resurrection to the nations which sit time-pinioned in despo- 
tism, and rapidly enfranchising the world. How insignificant, emp- 
ty, and inoperative, would have been the American Revolution, wiMli- 
out the benefits secured by such labors as these. " Surely," says 
Mr. Jefferson in writing to one of his revolutionary friends, " we 
had in view to obtain the theory and practice of good government ; 
and how any, who seemed so ardent in this pursuit, could as shame- 
lessly have apostatized, and supposed we meant only to put our 
government into other hands, but not other forms, is indeed won- 
derful." The revolution from despotism or from simple monarch- 
ism even, to a free structure of government, is an enterprise of trans- 
cendent difficulty ; no other nation on earth has been able to ac- 
complish it, finally and completely, though the attempts have been 
frequent, desperate, and terrible. The most refined portions of tlie 
earth have been deluged with blood, and overspread with desola- 



^^^ i^tFE, WP^triNGSy AND OPlNIOSrs 

tion, to recover the high ground on which the State of Virginia 
planted herself, at once, with tlie ^vhole Ameiican empire in lier 
tram, by the mere force of reason, without a sohtary throe. And 
the whole of this magnificent undertaking, was executed during 
the short interval of three years, chiefly by a single individual 
agreeably to a long premeditated plan, and carried into action, in 
great part, by his efforts ; supported, indeed, by able and faithful 
coadjutors from the ranks of the House, very effective as seconds. 
but who would not have taken the field as leaders. The whole 
catalogue of monarchical degeneracies and corruptions under which 
the transatlantic man has gi'oaned, immemorially, and which 
were attempted to be entailed on this new hemisphere, were extir- 
pated in a mass ; and an entire foundation laid for the bold and 
doubtful experiment of self-government. Freedoin and elasticity 
were restored to the mind; and the natural equality of the hu- 
man race, the first maxim of the Author's pohtical creed, was, as on 
all former occasions, the governing principle of his present goncrnf 
institute. Four of the bills reported were remarkable illustrations of 
this principle, suflftcient " to crush forever (he eternal antagonism 
of artificial aristocracy, against the rights and happiness of the peo- 
ple." They were marshalled in phalanx by the Author, for the 
express purpose of carrying out the principle of equality in all its 
latitude, as appears by his own record of the transaction. 

"I considered four of these bills, passed or reported, as forming a 
system by which every fibre would be eradicated of ancient or future 
aristocracy ; and a foundation laid for a government truly republi- 
can. The Repeal of the Laios of Entail would prevent the ac- 
cumulation and perpetuation of wealth, in select families, and pre- 
serve the soil of the country from being daily more and more absorb- 
ed in mortmain. The Abolition of Primogeniture, and equal par- 
tition of inheritances, removed the feudal and unnatural distinc- 
tions, which made one member of every family rich, and all the rest 
poor, substituting equal partition, the b^st of all Agrarian laws. 
The Restoration of the Rights of Conscience relieved the people 
from taxation for the support of a religion not theirs ; for the estab- 
lishment was tridy of the religion of the rich, the dissenting sects 
being entirely composed of the less wealthy people ; and these, by 
the Bill for a Getieral Education, would be quahfied to under- 
stand their rights, to maintain them, and to exercise with intelli- 
, gence their parts in self-government : and all this would be effected, 
without the violation of a single natinal right of any one individu- 
al citizen. To these, too, might be added, as a further security, the 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 177 

iiitroduction of the trial by jury into the Chancery Courts, which 
liave aheady engulphed, and continue to engulph, so great a pro- 
portion of the jurisdiction over our property." 

Among those who were associated with Mr. Jefferson in the 
great cause of reform, upon democratic grounds, and steadfastly co- 
operated in impressing the stamp of his principles upon the gov- 
ernment of the nation, at the first crisis of its birth, the names of 
George Mason and James Madison, occupy a pre-eminent station. 
The characters of these distinguished repubhcan statesmen, as 
drawn by their pohtical chieftain, in his posthumous memoir of 
those times, are too interesting to be pretermitted. 

"I had many occasional and strenuous coadjutors in debate, and 
one, most steadfast, able, and zealous ; who ^vas himself a Iwst. 
This was George Mason, a man of the first order of wisdom among 
those who acted on the theatre of the Revolution, of expansive 
mind, profound judgment, cogent in argument, learned in the lore 
of our former constitution, and earnest for the republican change, on 
democratic principles. His elocution was neither flowing nor 
smooth ; but his language was strong, his manner most impressive, 
and strengthened by a dash of biting cynicism, when provocation 
made it seasonable." 

"Mr. Madison came into the House in 1776, a new member, and 
young ; which circumstances, concurring with his extreme modes- 
ty, prevented his venturing himself in debate, before his removal to 
the Council of State, in November, ^77. From thence he went to 
Congress, then consisting of few members. Trained in these suc- 
cessive schools, he acquired a habit of self-possession, which placed 
at ready command the rich resources of his luminous and discrim- 
inating mind, and of his extensive information, and rendered hkii 
the first of every Assembly afterwards, of w^hicli he became a mem- 
ber. Never wandering from his subject into vain declamation, but 
pursuing it closely, in language pvue, classical and copious, soothing 
always the feelings of his adversaries, by civilities and softness of 
expression, he rose to the eminent station which he held in the great 
National Convention of 1787 ; and in that of Virginia, which fol- 
lowed, he sustained the new constitution in all its parts, bearing ofi' 
the palm against the logic of George Mason, and the fervid declam- 
ation of Mr. Henry. With these consummate powers, was united 
a pure and spotless virtue, which no calumny has ever attempted 
to sully. Of the powers and polish of his pen, and of the wisdom 
of his administration in the highest offica of the nation, I need say 
nothing. They have spoken, and ^vill forever speak for them-^ 
selves." 

16* 



1T8 LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

Of Mr. Pendleton, also;, who was his ^-eat opponent on all the 
ultra points of his theory, he has left a most interesting and flatter- 
ing portrait. 

" Mr. Pendleton, taken all in all, was the ablest man in debate I 
ha\yj ever met with. He had not, indeed, the poetical fancy of 
Mr. Henry, his sublime imagination, his \oitj and overwhelming 
diction ; but he was cool, smooth, and persuasive ; his language 
flowing, chaste, and embellished ; his conceptions quick, acute, and 
full of resource ; never vanquished ; for if he lost the main battle, 
lie returned upon you, and regained so much of it as to make it a 
drawn one, by dexterous manceuvres, skirmishes in detail, and the 
recovery of small advantages which, little singly, were important al- 
together. You never knew when you were clear of him, but were 
harassed by his perseverance, until the patience was worn down of 
all who had less of it than himself. Add to this, that he was one of 
the most virtuous and benevolent of men, the kindest friend, the 
most amiable and pleasant of companions, which ensured a favora- 
ble reception to whatever came from him," 

Oar detail of the public and official services of Mr. Jefferson, must 
now give place to an incident in private life, which discovers to view 
the liohness of his social affections, and the warmtli of his general 
philaiitiirophy. On the memorable surrender of Biu-goyne, in '77, 
it will be recollected, about four thousand British troops fell prisoners 
of war, into the hands of the American general ; and l)y an express 
article, in the capitulation, it was provided, that the surrendering ar- 
my should be retained in America, until an authentic ratification of 
the Goiiveution entered into between the belligerents, should be re- 
ceived from the British government. The troops were at first or- 
dered to Boston, where they remained about a twelve -month, when 
they were removed to Charlottesville, in Virginia, a short distance 
from Monticello. They arrived at the latter destination, in Janua- 
' ry, 1779. harassed by a long journey, diu'ing a most inclement sea- 
son, and doomed to encounter the severest hardships on their arrival, 
from the unfinished state of their barracks, the pressing insufficien- 
cy of stores, and the impassable condition of the roads, which render- 
ed the prospect appalling, of a timely and competent supply of subsis- 
tence. 

A general alarm waa disseminated among the inhabitants, inso- 
much that reasonable m'mds liecame infected with the panic. Mr. 
Jefferson, whose steady prescience of a seasonable change in the 
state of things, preserved him from the contagion, remained tranquil 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 179 

and unmoved. He stood among the multitude and exhorted them 
to patience and composure, by his reasonings on the inevitable ten- 
dency of affairs ; and soon, agreeably to his repeated persuasions, 
every difficulty disappeared, and every apprehension vanished. 
The planters, being more generally sellers than buyers, availed 
themselves, with great activity, of the advantages produced by the 
extraordinary demand for provisions, and quickly removed a scarci- 
ty merely accidental, to their own sensible benefit. 

In the mean time, Mr. Jefferson mingled personally in the oper- 
iitions of erecting barracks for the privates, and establishing suitable 
accommodations for the officers, blending with his personal exer- 
tions, those allecting civilities and blandishments, which disarm even 
ihe dungeon of its horrors. It is true, these men were the willing 
instruments of a bloody and implacable enemy, foes themselves to 
tiie freedom and happiness of their benefactor, and who, he v/ell 
knew, regarded him with such peculiar animosity, that under any 
other circumstances, they would have treated his offers of generosi- 
ty with unqualified contempt ; they were the enemies of his country, 
of that country which he so dearly loved, and whose cries were now 
ascending to Heaven against the injuries and the liberticide purposes 
of its oppressors ; but yet, they were human beings, and, as such, en- 
titled, in his opinion, to the same offices of kindness and hospitality, 
when in distress, as those who were united to him by the ties of nation- 
al or even kindred alliance. He was indefatigable in his endeavors 
to render comfortable, and even happy, the situation of the captives : 
cuid, aided by the benevolent interposition of the citizens of Char- 
lottesville, and by the genius and humane dispositions of the Com- 
missary, his exertions were attended with the most gratifying suc- 
cess. In a short time, the residence of the prisoners assumed a pleas- 
ing air of comfort and ease ; the barracks were completed, and a 
plentiful supply of provisions was procured. The officers had rent- 
ed houses, at an extravagant rate, erected additional buildings, at 
'their own expense, and hired small farms in the neighborhood, on 
which they beguiled the tedious hours of captivity, in the delightful 
occupations of agriculture and gardening. The men imitated, on £i 
smaller scale, the example of the officers. The environs of the bar- 
racks presented a charming appearance. The giound was cleared, 
and divided into small parcels, in the form of regular gardens, neatly 
enclosed and cultivated. They purchased cows, sheep, poultry, and 



ISO tlFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

other domestic animals, which, with the customary mi'al circximstan- 
ces, embellished the landscape, and presented to the mind, the idea of 
a company of farmers, rather than a camp of soldiers. 

In addition to the barracks erected by the public, the prisoners had 
built great numbers for themselves, on a more fanciful scale, and in 
groups, from a principle of esprit de corps. In short, the whole 
army, both officers and men, seemed comfortably quartered in their 
new accommodations, with every prospect of a permanent and hap- 
py resting place. 

But these extensive preparations and promising arangements 
were scarcely completed, when the Executive of Virginia, who had 
been invested by Congress with certain discretionary powers over 
the " Convention troops," as they were called, came to the deter- 
mination of removing them, either w'hoUy, or in part, from Char- 
lottesville, on the alleged ground of the insvifficiency of the State, 
for their animal subsistence. The rumored intelligence of this de- 
termination, filled the soldiers with the deepest regret and disap- 
pointment, lioud complaints were heard from every quarter, 
against the inhumanity of the measure ; the nation was accused of 
having violated its faith ; and such was the degree of efferves- 
cence among the prisoners, that irregular proofs of their dissatisfac- 
tion were seriously apprehended. 

The generous citizens among whom they were located, partici- 
pated largely in the general disapprobation. They contemplated 
the proposition, with mingled regret and mortification. The state 
of Mr. Jefferson's feelings may easily be imagined. His jealous 
sensibility for the national honor, and his ardent sympathies for the 
suffering captives, impelled him to immediate action. He addressed 
a long letter to Gov. Henry, in which he conducted him over the 
whole ground, and arrayed before him, in nervous and feeling terms, 
the multitude of public reasons, which obviously militated against 
the measure. The luminous and impressive developments of this 
letter, and the interest which all mankind feel in those efforts which 
are calculated to humanize the usages, and lessen the calamities of 
war, will justify the iiitroduction of a few extracts. 

" As an American, I cannot lielp feeling a thorough mortification, 
that our Congress should have permitted an infraction of our pub- 
lic honor ; as a citizen of Virginia, I cannot help hoping and con- 
tiding, that our supreme Executive, whose acts will be considered. 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 181 

as the acts of the Commonwealth, estimate that honor too highly 
to make its infraction their own act. I may be permitted to hope, 
then, that if any removal takes place, it will be a general one; and, 
as it is said to be left to the Governor and Council to determine on 
this, I am satistied, that, suppressing every other consideration, and 
weighing the matter dispassionately, they will determine upon this 
sole question, Is it for the benefit of those for whom they act, tliat 
the Convention troops should be removed from among them? Un- 
der the head of interest, these circumstances, viz. the expense of 
building barracks, said to have been j[;^25,000, and of removing the 
troops backwards and forwards, amounting to I knoAV not how 
much, are not to be pretermitted, merely because they are Continen- 
tal expenses ; for we are a part of the Continent ; we must pay a 
shilling of every dollar wasted. But the sums of money, which, by 
tliese troops, or on their account, are brought wto, and expended in 
this State, are a great and local advantage. This can require no 
proof. It, at tlie conclusion of the war, for instance, our share of 
the Conihiental debt should be twent.y millions of dollars, or say 
that we are called on to furnish an annual quota of two millions 
four himdred thousand dollars, to Congress, to be raised by a tax, 
it is obvious, that we shotdd raise these given sums with greater or 
less ease, in proportion to the g-roatcr or loss quantity of money 
found in circulation among us. I expect that our circulating mon- 
ey is, by the presence of these troops, at the rate of $30,00i) a week, 
at the least. I have heard, indeed, that an objection arises to their 
l^eing kept wnthin this State, from the information of the commis- 
sary, that they camiot be subsisted here. In attending to the in- 
formation of that otiicer, it should be borne in min'l that the 
county of King William, and its vicinities, are one thing, the terri- 
tory of Virginia, another. If the troops could be fed upon long letters, 
I believe the gentleman at the head of that department in this 
country would be the best commissary upon earth. But till I see 
him determined to act, not to write ; to sacrifice his domestic ease 
to the duties of his appointment, and apply to the resources of 
this country, wheresoever they are to be had, I must entertain a 
diflTerent opinion of him. I am mistaken, if, for the animal sub- 
sistence of the troops hitherto, we are not principally indebted to 
the genius and exertions of Hawkins, during the very short time 
he lived after his appointment to that department, by your board. 
His eye immediately pervaded the whole State ; it was reduced at 
once to a regular machine, to a system, and the whole put into 
movement and animation, by thej^«^ of a comprehensive mind. 
If the Commonwealth of Virginia cannot furnish these troops with 
bread, I Avould ask of the commissariat, which of the thirteen is 
now become the grain colony ? If wc are in danger of famine 
from the addition of foiu' thousand mouths, what is become of that 
surplus of bread, the exportation of ^vhich used to feed the West 



182 LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

Indies and Eastern States, and fill the Colony with hard money 1 
AVlien I urge the sufficiency of this State, however, to subsist these 
troops, 1 beg to be understood, as having in contemplation the 
quantity of provisions necessary for their real use, and not as calcu- 
lating what is to be lost by the wanton use, mismanagement, and 
carelessness of those employed about it. If magazines of beef 
and pork are suffered to rot by slovenly butchering, or for want 
of timely provision and sale ; if quantities of flour are exposed by 
the commissaries entrusted with the keeping it, to pillage and de 
strucdon ; and if, when laid up in the Continental stores, it is still 
to be emjjezzled and sold, the land of Egypt itself would be in- 
sufficient for their supply, and their removal would be necessary, 
not to a more plentiful country, but to more able and honest com- 
missaries. * . * * 

" Their health is also of importance. 1 would not endeavor to 
show that their lives are a aluable to us, because it would suppose a 
|x>ssibility, that humanity was kicked out of doors in America, and 
interest only attended to. The barracks occupy the tup and brow 
of a very high hill, (you have been untruly told they were in a bot- 
tom.) They are free from fog, have four springs which seem to be 
plentiful, one witliin twenty yards of the piquet, two within fifty 
yards, and another within two livindred and fiity, and they propose 
to sink wells within the piquet. Of four thousand people, it should 
be expected, according to the ordinary calculations, that one should 
die every day. Yet, in the space of near three months, there have 
been but four deaths among them ; two infants under three weeks 
old, and two others by apoplexy. The officers tell me, the troops 
were never before so healthy since they were embodied. 

" But is an enemy so execrable, that, though in captivity, his 
wishes and comforts are to be disregarded and even crossed ? I 
think not. It is for the benefit of mankind to mitigate the horrors 
of war as much as possible. The practice, therefore, of modern 
nations, of treating captive enemies with politeness and generosity, 
is not only delightful in contemplation, but really interesting to all 
the world, friends, foes, and neutrals. Let us apply this. * * 

[Here follows a detail of the labor and expense incurred in provid- 
ing their present accommodations, &c.] 

" Having thus found the art of rendering captivity itself comforta- 
ble, and carried it into execution, at their own great expense and la- 
\x)v, their spirit sustained by the prospect of gratifications rising l3e- 
fore their eyes, does not every sentiment of humanity revolt against 
the proposition of stripping them of all this, and removing them into 
new situations, where from the advanced season of the year, no pre- 
parations can be made for carrying themselves comfortably through 
the heat of summer ; and when it is known that the necessary ad- 
vances for the conveniences already provided, have exhausted their 
funds and left them unable to make the like exertions anew. 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 1S3 

Again ; review this matter as it may regard appearances. A body 
of troops, after staying a twelvemonth at Boston, are ordered to take 
a march of seven hundred miles to Virginia, where, it is said, they 
may be plentifully subsisted. As soon as they are there, they are 
ordered on some other march, because, in Virginia, it is said, they 
cannot be subsisted. IndiflTerent nations will charge this eitlaer to 
ignorance, or to whim and caprice ; the parties interested, to cruelty. 
They now view the proposition in that light, and it is said, there is a 
general and firm persuasion among them, that they were marched 
from Boston with no other purpose than to harass and destroy them 
with eternal marches. Perseverance in object, though not by the 
most direct way, is often more laudaljle than perpetual changes, as 
often as the object shifts light. A character of steadiness in our 
councils is worth more than the suJDsistence of four thousand peo- 
ple. # * * * 

" To conclude. The separation of these troops would be a Ijreach 
of public faith ; therefore 1 suppose it impossible. If they are re- 
moved to another State, it is the fault of the Commissaries ; if they 
are removed to any other part of the State, it is the fault of the Com- 
missaries ; and in both cases, the public interest and pulilic security 
suffer, the comfortable and plentiful suljsistence of our own army is 
lessened, the health of the troops neglected, their wishes crossed, and 
their comforts torn from them, the character of whim and caprice, 
or, what is worse, of cruelty, fixed on us as a nation, and, to crown 
the whole, our own people disgusted with such a proceeding. 

" I have thus taken the hberty of representing to you the facts 
and the reasons, which seem to militate against the separation or 
removal of these troops. I am sensible, however, that the same sub- 
ject may appear to different persons in very different lights. What 
I have urged as reasons, may, to sounder minds, be apparent falla- 
cies. I hope they will appear, at least, so plausible, as to excuse the 
interposition of your Excellency's most obedient and most humble 
servant." 

The reasonableness and cogency of this appeal, produced the in- 
tended effect. The Governor and Council, on a dispassionate re- 
view of the arguments submitted by Mr. Jefferson, were convinced, 
that the removal or separation of the troops, would be a breach of 
ihe public faith, and fix the character of unsteadiness, and what 
was worse, of cruelty, on the Councils of the nation. The proposi- 
tion was accordingly abandoned, and the troops permitted to remain 
together at Charlottesville. 

The liberal and high-mmded conduct of Mr. Jefferson, on this 
occasion, and his uniform endeavors, during their confinement, tf 
ameUorate their suffering condition, excited in the soldiers theliveli- 



184 LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

est emotions of gratitude. They loaded him with expressions of 
their sensibihty ; and no time could obliterate the impression from 
their hearts. Subsequently, when Ambassador in Europe, Mr. 
Jetferson visited Germany ; and passing through a town where one 
of the Hessian corps, that had been at Charlottesville, happened to 
be in garrison, he met with Baron De Geismar, who immediately 
apprized Jiis brother officers of the presence of their benefactor. 
They flocked around him, greeted him with affecting tokens of their 
remembrance, and spoke of America with enthusiasm. 

On taking leave of Charlottesville, the principal officers. Major 
Generals Phillips and Riedesel, Brigadier Specht, C. De Geismar, 
.T. L. De Unger, and some others, addressed him letters, expressive 
oftheir lasting attachment, and bidding him an affectionate adieu. 
Philhps emphatically extols his "delicate proceedings." Riedesel 
repeatedly and fervently pours out his thanks, and those of his wife 
and children. To all these letters, Mr. Jefferson returned answers, 
replete with sentiments of politeness and generosity, of the highest 
order. Some of these answers have been preserved. " The great 
cause which divides our countries," he replied to Phillips, " is not to 
be decided by individual animosities. The harmony of private so- 
cieties cannot weaken national efforts. To contribute, by neigh- 
borly intercourse and attention, to make others happy, is the short- 
est and suiest way of being happy oui-selves. As these sentiments 
«eemto have directed your conduct, we should be as unwise as illib- 
eral, were we not to preserve the same temper of mind." 

To General Riedesel he thus wrote : " The little attentions you 
are pleased to magnify so much, never deserved a mention or 

thought. Opposed as we happen to be, in our sentiments 

of duty and honor, and anxious for contrary events, I shall, never- 
theless, sincerely rejoice in every circumstance of happiness and safe- 
ty w4iich may attend you personally." 

To Lieutenant De Unger, xAno Avrote in French wdth an air of 
great naivete, he replied in the following manner : " The very 
small amusements which it has been in my power to furnish, in or- 
der to lighten your heavy hours, by no means merited the ac- 
knowledgements you make. Their impression must be ascribed to 
your extreme sensibility rather than to their own weight. When 
the course of events shall have removed you to distant scenes of ac- 
.tion, where laurels not moistened with the blood of my country, may 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 185 

be gatherecl, 1 shall urge my sincere prayers for your obtaining ev- 
ery honor and preferment which may gladden the heart of a soldier. 
On the other hand, should your fondness for philosophy resume its 
merited ascendency, is it impossible to hope, that this unexplored 
country may tempt your residence, by holding out materials, where- 
\vith to build a fame, fovmded on the happiness, and not on the ca- 
lamities of human nature ? Be this as it may, a philosopher or a 
soldier, I wish you personally many felicities." De linger was a 
votary of literature and science. He was a frequent visitor at the 
hospitable mansion of Mr. Jefferson, and enjoyed in his library ad- 
vantages, which, his taste combined with his situation to render 
doubly precious. Other officers lov^ed music and painting ; they 
found in him a rich and cultivated taste for the fine arts. They 
were astonished, delighted ; and their letters to several parts of Ger- 
many, gave of the American character, ideas derived from that ex- 
alted specimen. These letters found their way into several Ga- 
zettes of the ancient world, and the name of Jefferson was associa- 
ted with that of Franklin, whose fame had then spread over Eu- 
rope. " Surely," says an historian,* '-'this innocent and bloodless 
conquest over the minds of m^n, whose swords had originally been 
hired to the oppressors of America, was in itself scarcely less glori- 
ous, though in its effects less extensively beneficial, than the splen- 
did train of victories which had disarmed their hands." 



CHAPTER Vn. 

On the 1st of June, 1779, Mr. Jefferson was elected Governor of 
the Commonwealth of Virginia ; and retired from the Legislature, 
with the highest dignity within the scope of their appointment. 
Political distinctions being then unknown, the ballot box determin- 
ed the exact value put upon the abilities of public characters. Be- 
ing but thirty-six years old, his personal ascendency must have been 
great to have outweighed the sanctimonious and almost irresistible 
predisposition for age and experience, in selecting the Executive 

*Girardin, p.327. 



186 LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

head. The result, however, was not unnatural. The connection 
of his name, in such distinguished forms, with the most important 
revolutionary transactions, especially the Declaration of Independ- 
ence, and his bold and rapid succession of reformations, in the mu- 
nicipal Legislature, sulastituting lepul^licanism in the room of mon- 
archy, throughout, had established a reputation, whose pre-emi- 
nence was justly undisputed and indisputable. Yet, with so many 
claims to the gratitude and confidence of his country, it is stated as 
an historical fact, that he received the intelligence of his election 
with unaffected regret. The metaphysical attachments of his mind 
were unsuited to the pomp and perturbation of office ; and patriotic 
devotion alone, could induce him to relinquish a sphere of action, in 
which the labors of the statesmen might be occasionally intermin- 
gled with the tranquil pursuits of philosophy, and the pleasures of 
domestic retirement. 

A circumstance attended his elevation to the office of Chief Mag- 
istrate, which is entitled to special consideration and regard. It was 
one of the noblest and most endearing traits of Mr. Jefferson's char- 
acter, that he never would permit his personal attachments to be 
weakened by public rivalries or political animosities. The most af- 
fecting proofs of his adherence to this rare species of magnanimity, 
through seasons of unparalleled political rancor, adorn the later por- 
tions of his public history. On the present occasion, his intimate 
friend, John Page, a patriotic and high-minded gentlemen, impru- 
dently permitting himself to be nominated, shared with him the suf- 
frages of the Legislature. It is not improbable, that the extreme 
liberality of Mr. Jefferson's opinions, on certain important points, 
had rallied in opposition to hipn, the remnants of that avenging 
aristocracy, whom he had so often and so gloriously vanquished , 
federating with the personal and political friends of Mr. Page, with 
at without his connivance, they might be able to make a sensible 
diversion from the principal candidate, which would account for the 
actual result of the vote. Be this as it may, Mr. Jefferson would 
permit no such construction to rest on his own mind, and alienate 
him from his friend, whatever might be the constructions of the 
world, to which he was absolutely invulnerable ; and he entreated 
liis involuntary rival to remain forever easy under this assurance. 
In reply to a card of explanation from him, he wrote the follow- 
ing letter. 



OF THOMAa JEFFERSON. 



187 



'• Williamsburg, June 22, 1779. 
" Dear Page, — I received your letter by Mr. Jamieson. It had 
given me much pain, that the zeal of our respective friends should 
ever ha\'e placed you and me in the situation of competitors. I was 
comforted, however, with the reflection, that it was their competi- 
tion, not ours, and that the difference of the numbers wdiich decided 
betv.-een us, was too insignificant to give you a pain, or me a pleas- 
Mve, had our dispositions towards each other been such as to admit 
those sensations. I know you too well to need an apology for any 
thing you do, and hope you will for ever be assured of this ; and as 
to the constructions of the world, they would only have added one 
to the many sins for wbich they are to go to the devil. As this is 
the first, I hope it will be the last, instance of ceremony between us. 
A desire to see my family, which is in Charles City, carries me thith- 
er to-morrow, and I shall not return till Monday. Be pleased to 
present my compliments to Mrs. Page, and add this to the assuran- 
ces I have ever given you, that I am, dear Page, your affectionate 
friend." 

Immediately on assuming the helm of administration, Mr. Jeffer- 
son directed the weight of his station, and the powers confided to 
him, towards reclaiming the enemy to the principles of humanity, 
m the treatment of American prisoners. He had seen with sensi- 
bility, that the conduct of the British oflficers, civil and military, had 
in the whole course of the w ar, been savage, and unprecedented 
among civilized nations ; that American officers and soldiers, capti- 
vated by them, had been loaded with irons — consigned to crowded 
gaols, loathsome dungeons, and prison-ships — supphed often with 
no food, generally with too little for the sustenance of nature, and 
that httle so unsound and unvk'holesome, as to have rendered captiv- 
ity and death almost synonymous with them ; that they had been 
transported beyond seas, where their fate could not be ascertamed, or 
compelled to take arms against their country, and by a refinement 
in cruelty, to become the murderers of their own bretln-en. 

On the other hand, the treatment extended to British prisoners, by 
American victors, had been marked, he well knew, with singular mod- 
eration and clemency. They had been supphed, on all occasions, with 
wholesome and plentiful food, provided with comfortable accommoda- 
tions, suffered to range at large wdthin extensive tracts of country, 
permitted to live in American families, to labor for themselves, to 
acquire and enjoy property, and finally, to participate in the princi- 
pal benefits of society, while privileged from all its burthens. In 
some cases they had been treated Avith elegant hospitahty, and refin- 



1S8 LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OFINIONff 

ed courtesy. We have already witnessed the gratifying spectacle 
of four thousand British troops, prisoners of war, reheved suddenly 
from an accumulation of miseries, and raised, some to a state of dig- 
nified ease, all to a condition of competency and comfort, chief- 
ly by his own private enterprises, seconded by the liberality and 
munificence of his fellow citizens. 

Reviewing this contrast, which could not be denied by the ene- 
my themselves, in a single point, and which had been continued by 
them for a term of time, which forbade any longer hope of winning 
them over to the practice of humanity, by the law^ of kindness and 
generosity, Governor Jefferson felt impelled, by a sense of public 
justice, to substitute a system of rigorous and dreadful retribution. 
He felt "called on," in the impressive language of his order, "by 
that justice we owe to those who are fighting the battles of our coun- 
try, to deal out miseries to their enemies, measure for measure, and 
to distress the feelings of mankind by exhibiting to them spectacles 
of severe retaliation, where we had long and vainly endeavored to 
introduce an emulation in kindness." 

Happily, the fortune of war had thrown into his pow er, some of 
those very individuals, w4io, having distinguished themselves person- 
ally in the practice of cruelties, were proper subjects on which to 
begin the work of retaliation. Among these w^ere Henry Hamilton, 
who, for some years past, had acted as Lieutenant Governor of the 
settlement at Detroit, under Sir Guy Carlton ; Philip Dejean, Jus- 
tice of the Peace for Detroit, and William Lamothe, captain of vol- 
unteers, — taken prisoners of war by Colonel Clarke at Fort St. Vin- 
cents, and brought under guard to Williamsburg, early in June, '79. 
Proclamations under his own hand, and the concurrent testimony of 
indifferent witnesses, proved Governor Hamilton a remorseless de- 
stroyer of the human race, instead of an honorable national enemy. 
He had excited the Indians to perpetrate their accustomed atroci- 
ties upon the citizens of the United States, with an eagerness and 
ingenuity, which evinced, that the general nature of the employ- 
ment harmonized w^ith his particular disposition. He gave stand- 
ing rewards for scalps, but offered none for prisoners, which induced 
the Indians, after compelling their captives to carry their ba^age- 
into the neighborhood of the fort, to butcher them at last, and carry 
in their scalps to the Governor, who w^elcomed their return and suc- 
cess by a discharge of cannon ; and the few American prisoners 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON". 189 

spared by his blood-hounds, were doomed by him to a captivity of 
hngeiing and complicated toitnreSf terminating in death. Concern- 
ing Dejean and Lamothe, it was well ascertained, that they had, on 
all occasions, been the ready and cordial instruments of Hamilton ; 
the former, acting in the double capacity of judge and jailor, had 
instigated him by malicious insinuations, to increase rather than re- 
lax his severities, and had aggravated the cruelty of his orders, by 
his manner of executing them ; the latter, as commander of volun- 
teer scalping parties, Indians and whites, had desolated the frontier 
settlements by his marauding excursions, devoting to indiscrimin- 
ate destruction, men, women, and children, and stimulating by his 
example, the fury of his execrable banditti.* 

Possessed, by the force of American arms, of such fit subjects as 
these, on which to make the first demonstrations of retributive jus- 
tice, and coerce the enemy into the usages of civilized warfare, 
Governor Jefferson issued an order, in conformity to the advice of 
his Council, directing the above named prisoners to be put in irons, 
confined in the dungeon of the public gaol, debarred the use of pen, 
ini\:, and paper, and excluded from all conversation, except with 
their keeper. 

Major General Phillips, who continued near Charlottesville in 
dignified captivity, having read in the Virginia Gazette, the ener- 
getic order of the Governor, immediately addressed him a remon- 
strance on the subject. In his communication, he endeavored to 
invalidate the testimony against Hamilton, and to extenuate his 
conduct ; expressed doubts respecting the authority of any particu- 
lar State to enter upon retaliation, which he supposed belonged ex- 
clusively to Congress ; expatiated largely on the sacred nature of a 
capitulation, which, in the present case, he contended, exempted 
the prisoner from the severe punishment inflicted on him, whatever 
his previous conduct might have been ; and in conclusion, entreat- 
ed the Governor to reconsider the subject. " From my residence 
in Virginia," he adds, " I have conceived the most favorable idea of 
the gentlemen of this country ; and from my personal acquaint- 
ance with you, Sir, I am led to imagine it must have been very 
dissonant to the feelings of your mind, to inflict such a weight of 

' * Jefferson's "Works, Vol. 1. Appendix, Note A. 

17* 



190 LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

luiseiy and stigma of disgrace upon the unfortunate gentleman io 
question." 

Whatever may have been the feelings of Mr. Jefferson, when 
no superior obligation stood in the way, (and none had better reason 
to honor them than General Phillips and his fellow captives,) his 
present situation, as Chief Magistrate, required the stern subordina- 
tion of those feelings to the service of his country, and the gener- 
al good of mankind. His own opinion was, that all persons taken 
in war, as well those who surrendered on capitulation, as those 
wlio surrendered at discretion, were to be deemed prisoners of war, 
and liable to the same treatment ; except only so far as they were 
protected by the express terms of their capitulation. In the sur- 
rehdry of Governor Hamilton, no stipulation was made as to tlie 
t reatment of himself or his fellow prisoners. The Governor, indeed, 
upon signing, had added a flourish of reasons, which induced him 
to capitulate, one of which was, the generosity of his victorious en- 
emy. ' Generosity, on a large and comprehensive scale, thought 
Mr, Jefferson, dictated the making a signal example of the gentle- 
man ; but waiving that, these were only the private motives in- 
ducing him to surrender, and did not enter into the contract of the 
antagonist party.' He continued in the belief, therefore, that the 
l>are existence of a capitidation, did not privilege Hamilton from 
confiiiement, there being in that contract no positive stipulation to 
that effect. The importance of the point, however, in a national 
view, and his great anxiety for the honor of the government, un- 
der a charge of violated faith by one of its supreme functionaries, 
induced him to sul^mit the question to the Commander in Chief ; 
sensible that there was no other person whose opinion would so 
authoritatively decide the doubt in the pubhc mind, or to which 
he was disposed so implicitly to conform. 

General Washington saw wath pleasure the Executive of his 
native State, entering with commendable energy, upon a course of 
measures, which the conduct of the enemy had rendered necessa- 
ry. But, entertaining doubts as to the real bearing and extent of 
the capitulation in question, and concurring with Mr. .Tefferson, in 
a sacred respect for the laws and usages of civiUzed nations, he re- 
commended a relaxation of severities, after a fair trial of the prac- 
tical effect of the present proceeding. One solemn inculcation 
would have been administered ; Virginia would have it in her 



OP THOMAS JEFFERSON. 191 

p(nver to repeat it. This alone might produce the intended reform- 
ation, and remove the horrid necessity of individual chastisement, 
for national barbarities. 

Influenced by the advice of the Commander in Chief, the more 
as it harmonized with the better dictates of his understanding, 
Governor Jefferson re-considered the case of the captives, and issu- 
ed a second order in council, mitigating the severity of the first, 
though not comproraiting the right, in any one point. A single 
specimen of the early State papers of Mr. Jefferson, is the least 
that will be required by the reader, while it is all that our limits ' 
will allow. There is something peculiarly elevated in the senti- 
ment and diction of all his Executive mandates. 

" In Council, September 29, 1779. 
" The board having been, at no time, unmindful of the circum- 
stances attending the confinement of Lieutenant Governor Hamil- 
ton, Captain Lamothe, and Philip Dejean, which the personal 
cruelties of those men, as well as the general conduct of the ene- 
my, had constrained them to advise : wishing, and wilHng to ex- 
pect that their sufferings may lead them to the practice of human- 
ity, should any future turn of fortune, in their favor, submit to their 
discretion the fate of their fellow creatures ; that it may prove an 
admonition to others, meditating like cruelties, not to rely for im- 
punity in any circumstances of distance or present security ; and 
that it may induce the enemy to reflect, what must be the painful 
consequences, should a continuation of the same conduct on their 
part impel us again to severities, while such multiplied subjects of 
retaUation are within our power ; sensible that no impression can 
he made on the event of the war, by wreaking vengeance on mis- 
erable captives, that the great cause which has animated the two 
nations against each other, is not to be decided by unmanly cruel- 
ties on wretches, who have bowed their necks to the power of the 
victor, but by the exercise of honorable valor in the field ; earnestly 
hoping that the enemy, viewing the subject in the same light, 
will be content to abide the event of that mode of decision, and 
spare us the pain of a second departure from kindness to our cap- 
tives : confident that commisseration to our prisoners i$ the only 
possible motive, to which can be candidly ascribed, in the present 
actual circumstances of the war, the advice we are now about to 
give ; the board does advise the Governor to send Lieutenant Gov- 
ernor Hamilton, Captain Lamothe, and Philip Dejean, to Hanover 
court house, there to remain at large, within certain reasonable 
limits, taking their parole in the usual manner. The Governor 
oiders accordingly." 



19^ LlPEj WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

Agreeably to the above order, a parole was drawn up and ten- 
dered the prisoners. It required them to be inofiensive in word as 
well as deed; to which they objected, insisting on entire freedom of 
st5eech. They were, consequently, remanded to their confinement, 
which was now to be considered voluntary. Their irons, however, 
were knocked off'. The subaltern prisoners, soon after, subscribed 
the protlered parole, and were enlarged ; but Hamilton, aspiring to 
tlie fame of a martyr in the royal cause, and expecting ample re- 
muneration for his magnified distressei=, by future promotion, long 
refused to follow. Upon being informed by General Philhps, who 
had been exchanged, that his sufferings would be perfectly gratu- 
itous, he at last complied. 

These vigorous measures of Governor Jefferson produced the 
clTects anticipated. In the first moments of passion, the British re- 
resorted to what they improperly termed, retaliation ; being a revival 
only, in more hideous forms, of their established practices — there- 
fore, to be deemed original and unprovoked in every new instance. 
A declaration was also issued, that no officers of the Virginia line 
should be exchanged till Hamilton's affair should be satisfactorily 
settled. When this information was received, the Governor imme- 
diately ordered all exchange of British prisoners to be stopped, with 
tlie determination to use them as pledges for the safety of Ameri- 
cans in hke circumstances. " It is impossible," he writes to Gen- 
eral Washington, " they can be serious in attempting to bully us in 
this manner. We have too many of their subjects in our power, 
and too much iron to clothe them with, and, I will add, too much 
resolution to avail ourselves of both, to fear tbeir pretended retalia- 
tion." Eflectual measures were taken for ascertaining, fi'om time 
to time, tlie situation and treatment of American captives, with a 
view to retaliate, on the enemy, corresponding treatment in all cases ; 
and the prison ship, fitted up on the recommendation of Congress, 
was ordered to a proper station, for the reception and confinement 
of such as should be sent to it. " I am afraid," he again writes to the 
Commander in Chief, " I shall hereafter, perhaps, be obliged to give 
your Excellency some trouble in aiding me to obtain information of 
the future usage of our prisoners. I shall give immediate orders 
for having iu readiness evety engine, which the enemy have con- 
trived for the destruction of our unhappy citizens captivated by' 
them. The presentiment of these operations is shocking beyond 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 193 

expression. I pray Heaven to avert them ; but nothing in this 
World will do it, but a proper conduct in the enemy. In every 
event, I shall resign myself to the hard necessity under which I 
shall act." 

The Governor was not insensible to the aggravation of misery, 
which the first exercises of his policy brought on those unfortimate 
Citizens of the United States, who were in the power of the ene- 
ny. On the contrary, he entered feelingly into their situation, and 
encouraged them, by persuasive appeals to their fortitude, and by 
those fascinating descriptions of future glory, which so powerfully 
affect the soldier, to bear up against a temporary increase of per- 
sona\ suffering, for the lasting and general benefit of their country. 
An iiieresting letter nf his to Colonel Matthews, ail otiicer of the 
Virginia line, whose parolp had been leLiacted ))y the enemy, in 
consequv^re of the new measures, has recently been given to the 
world. \t. explnins the motives, and the benefirial tcndcucy of his 
policy, ir a forcible and engaging manner. 

"It gives us great pain that any of our countrymen should be 
CU off from the society of their friends and tenderest connections, 
wfye it seems as if it was in our power to administer relief. But 
we rust to their good sense for discerning, and their spirit for bear- 
ing k) against the fallacy of this appearance. * * # 
Humane conduct on our part, was found to produce no effect ; the 
contrar}^ therefore, was to be tried. If it produces a proper lenity 
to our citizens in captivity, it will have the effect we meant ; if it 
does not, ve shall return a severity as terrible as universal. If the 
causes of oiv vigor against Hamilton were founded in truth, that 
rigor was jus, and would not give right to the enemy to commence 
any new hosti^ties on their part ; and all such new severities are 
to be considered, not as retaliation, but as original and unprovoked. 
If those causes y^ve not founded in truth, they should have denied 
them. If, declinirjiT the tribunal of truth and reason, they choose 
to pervert this into », contest of cruelty and destruction, we wnll 
contend with them in that line, and measure out misery to those 
in our power, in that ^aultiplied proportion which the advantage of 
superior numbers enable;! us to do. We shall think it our particu- 
lar duty, after the information we gather from the papei's which 
have been laid before us, lo pay very constant attention to your 
situation, and that of your fellow prisoners. We hope that the 
prudence of the enemy will be your protection from injury ; and 
we are assured that your regard for the honor of your country 
would not permit you to wish we should suffer ourselves to be bul- 
lied into an acquiescence, under every insult and cruelty they may 



194 LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

choose to practise, and a fear to retaliate, lest )'oii should be made 
to experience additional sufierings. Tlieir officers and soldiers in 
our hands are pledges for your safety ; we are determined to use 
them as such. Iron will be retaliated by iron, but a great multi- 
plication on distinguished objects ; prison ships by prison ships, and 
like for like in general. * * * 

I beg you to be assured, there is nothing consistent with X\v 
honor of your country, which we shall not, at all times, be ready <o 
do for the relief of yourself and companions in captivity. We kno.v. 
that ardent spirit and hatred for tyranny, which brought you iito 
3"our present situation, will enable you to bear up against it vith 
the firmness, which has distinguished you as a soldier, and to look 
forward with pleasure to the day, when events shall take ilace. 
against which the wounded spirits of your enemies will fiid no 
coanfort, even from ipflections on the niOBt refined of the cueltifs 
with v/hich iliey have glutted thpinselves. I am, &.c." 

These inspiriting scntivnenta of tlie Exeriitive, lifted tie hearts 
ot tlie American prison ore, to the fortitude of martyrs. They ac- 
cn.il/^«rpd^ with god like heroism, in tlic stern necessity, which dic- 
tated the oblivion of their private distresses, in the prospect of tAe 
general amelioration of captivated man. Nor was this delighfui 
anticipation wholly disappointed. The practical inculcation of 'uch 
a lesson, produced a sensible humiliation in the conduct of tie en- 
emy, through the subsequent stages of the wTcr. The Joor of 
British magnanimity, which was barred to the dictates c reason, 
justice, and national honor, was compelled, reluctantly, to yield to 
tlie cries of their own countrymen, and the fatal admonitions of 
experience. 

These details, we are aware, are disproportionec' to the general 
scale of our narrative ; but they evince how thoroughly American 
was the heart of Mr. Jefierson, subduing all its sympathies for his 
British brethren, however powerful they were before, the moment 
they came in conflict with the well being of lis countrymen. Ex- 
treme sensibility almost invariably begets rt^eak magistrates ; and 
the examples are equally rare, of civil rulers, who have uni- 
ted to a general philanthropy so acute, a/ove of country so predom- 
inant and exclusive. 

In the same national spirit which guided his military operations- 
he engaged in a civil transaction of extensive and solid utility to 
to the Commonwealth. Upon the mediation of Spain, offered 
alx)ut tliis time, sanguine hopes were entertained of an anproacli- 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 195 

ing pacification ; and Congress, in settling their ultimatum, had 
Hitimated, that the principal of uti possidetis should be recogniz- 
ed in adjusting the boundaries of the several States. Whereu{x>n, 
Governor Jefferson instituted active measures for extending the 
western establishments of Virginia, with a view to secure, by actual 
possession, the right of that State in its whole extent, to the Mis- 
sissippi. He engaged a company of scientific gentlemen to proceed, 
under an escort, to the Mississippi, and ascertain, by celestial ob- 
servation, the point on that river intersected by the latitude of thirty 
six and a half degrees, the southern limit of the State ; and to 
measure its distance from the mouth of the Ohio. 

The brave -and enterprising Colonel Clarke, who, by a series of un- 
paralleled successes over the Indians, had already secured extensive 
acquisitions to Virginia, was selected by the Governor to conduct the 
military operations. He was directed, so soon as,the southern limit 
on the Mississippi should be ascertained, to select a strong and com- 
manding position, near that point, and to estaljlish there a Fort and 
garrison ; thence to extend his conquests northward to the Lakes, 
erecting Forts at different points, which might serve as monuments 
of actual possession, besides affording protection to that portion of 
the country. Under these orders. Fort Jefferson, in compliment to 
the founder of the enterprize, was erected and garrisoned on the 
Mississippi, a few miles above the southern limit. The final result 
of this patriotic expedition, was the addition to the chartered limits of 
Virginia, of that immense tract of country north west of the Ohio 
river, which includes the present States of Indiana, Illinois, Ohio in 
part, and the Michigan Territory. 

The following year, 1780, on the urgent recommendation of 
Governor Jefferson, and in compliance with the wishes of Congress, 
a resolution passed the Legislature, generously ceding to the United 
States, the whole of this vast extent of unappropriated territory. 
This important event removed the great obstacle to the ratification 
of the Confederacy between the States. Upon transmitting the res- 
olution to the President of Congress, the Governor wrote : " I shall 
be rendered very happy if the other States of the Union, equally'im- 
pressed with the necessity of the important convention in prospect, 
shall be wilhng to sacrifice equally to its completion. This single 
"event, couldittake place shortly, would outweigh every success which 



196 LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

the enemy have hitherto obtained, and render desperate the hopes to 
which those successes have given birth." 

To this magnanimous resolution, were appended the well known 
sentiments of Mr. Jeflerson, with respect to the navigation of the 
Mississippi, and the necessity of securing a free Port at the mouth 
of that river. 

In the course of one month after the adoption of this measure, 
the Confederation was completed. 

On the first of June, 1780, Mr. Jefferson was re-elected Govern- 
or by the unanimous vote of the Legislature. During his second 
gubernatorial term, Virginia, which had hitherto been distant from 
I he seat of war, was destined to be made the theatre of a cam- 
paign more arduous, perilous and distressing, than perhaps distin- 
guished any other period of the Revolution. Three systematic inva- 
sions, by numerous and veteran armies, inundated the State, in 
quick and terrible succession ; nor could there have been a more un- 
favoralile concurrence of circumstances, for offering an adequate re- 
sistance, than existed during the whole time these formidal)le oper- 
ations were carried on. Virginia was completely defenceless ; her 
physical resources were exhausted ; her troops had been drawn off 
to the South and to the North, to meet the incessant demands' in 
those quarters, and the Continental army was too much reduced to 
afford her any important succors. The militia constituted the only 
force on which any reliance could be placed ; and the resort to this 
force was limited by the deficiency of arms, which was aggravated 
by the pressing destitution of the finances. Indeed, the general con- 
dition of the country, at the South, exhibited a deplorable aspect. 
The city of Charleston, with the main body of the Continental army, 
had fallen into the hands of Lord Cornwallis ; and the haughty 
victor, inflated with success, had proclaimed his intention of pushing 
his advances northward, on a magnificent scale of conquest, subju- 
gating in his course, the entire States of Nortli Carolina and Vir- 
ginia, and devoting the inhabitants to unconditional submission, or 
the sword. 

Intelligence of these menacing calculations had no sooner reach- 
ed Virginia, than the Governor commenced the most vigorous meas- 
ures for recreating the army, and putting the comitry in a firm pos- 
ture of defence. Fcff this purpose, he was invested by the Legisla- 
lure with new and extraordinary powers. Should the State be 



OP THOMAS DfEFFERSON. 197 

mvadecl, 20,000 militia were placed at his disposal ; he was empow- 
ered to impress provisions and other articles, for the public service, 
and likewise, to lay an embargo in the ports of the Commonwealth, 
whenever expedient. He was authorized to confine or remove all 
persons suspected of disaffection ; and to subject to martial law in- 
dividuals acting as spies or guides to the enemy, or in any manner 
aiding, abetting, and comforting them, or disseminating among the 
militia the seeds of discontent, mutiny and revolt. He was direct- 
ed to invigorate the laboratory for the manufacture of arms, which 
had, of late, been languishing ; and, at the same time, to provide 
proper magazines for warlike stores. To meet the pecuniary exi 
§encies of the times, paper emissions were necessarily multiplied ; 
and new taxes were devised. 

These defensive arrangements were scarcely enacted, when their 
execution was suddenly suspended, by the appearance in the Ches- 
apeake, of a strong British armament, under the command of Gen- 
eral Leslie. Resistance by maritime means, being unavailable at 
this juncture, the Governor immediately collected as large a body oi 
militia as he could equip, to prevent the debarkation of the enemy ; 
but the alarm of the inhabitants, whose first care was to secure their 
wives, children, and movable property, together with the insufficien- 
cy of arms, rendered his exertions ineffectual. It was to him a 
source of anguish and mortification, to think, that a jjeople able and 
zealous to repel the invader, should be reduced to impotency, by the 
want of defensive weapons. The enemy landed at different points, 
but soon concentrated their forces in Portsmouth, fortified themselves, 
and remained in close quarters, until they retreated on ]3oard their 
ships. It appears this force had been detached by Cornwalhs, to 
invade Virginia by water, occupy Portsmouth for the purposes of 
support <ind safe rendezvous, and join the main army under his 
command, on its entrance, by land, into the southern borders of the 
State. But the precipitate retreat of Comwallis into South Caroli- 
na, in consequence of serious reverses in that quarter, defeated Les- 
lie's anticipated junctiMi with the main army, and compelled his 
sudden departure fiom the State, leaving his works unfinished and 
undestroyed. The principal injury resulting from this invasion, 
was the loss of a quantity of cattle, collected for the use of the 
southern army, and seized by the enemy immediately after disem- 
barking. Indeed, the conduct of this detachment, whilst in Vir- 

IS 



198 LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

ginia, was an honorable exception, in all respects, to that savage 
and predatory system, which had hitherto marked the footsteps of 
British conquest. " I must," writes the Governor to General Wash- 
ington, " do their General and Commander the justice to observe, 
that in every case, which their attention and influence could reach, 
as far as I have been informed, their conduct was such as does 
them the greatest honor. In the few instances of wanton and un- 
necessary devastation, they punished the aggressors." To the firm- 
ness of Mr. Jefferson, in the case of Hamilton, history ascribes in 
great part, this reputable deviation from a mode of warfare, which 
all mankind must abhor.* 

This hostile armament had scarcely left the coast, when Virginia 
was surprised by another invasion, of a more formidable character, 
from an unexpected quarter. The parricide Arnold, apprised of 
the vulnerable condition of Virginia, on the sea board, projected the 
plan of a second attack by a naval force. He embarked from New 
York, at the instance of Sir Henry Clinton, and on the 30th of De- 
cember, 1780, was seen entering the Capes of Virginia, with twenty- 
seven sail of vessels. He ascended James river, and landed about 
fifteen miles below Richmond. On the approach of a hostile force 
into the heart of the State, the inhabitants were thrown into con- 
sternation. The Governor made every effort for calling in a suffi- 
cient body of militia to resist the incursion ; but, being dispersed 
over a large tract of country, they could be collected but slowly. 
Richmond being evidently the object of their attack, every effort was 
necessary for immediately securing the arms, military stores, records, 
&c. from the ravages of the profligate invader. He hastily embod- 
ied about two hundred half armed militia, for the purpose of protect- 
ing the removal of the records, military stores, (fcc. to the opposite 
side of James river. He superintended their movements in person ; 
and was seen urging, by his presence, the business of transporta- 
tion, and coolly issuing his orders, until the enemy had actually en- 
tered the lower part of the town, preceded by a body of light horse. 
Soon the whole regiment poured into Richmond, and commenced 
the work of pillage and conflagration. They burnt the foundary, 
the boring mill, the magazine, a number of dwelling houses, the 
l>ooks and papers of the Auditor's and the Council office, and retired 



* History of Virginia, vol. 4, p. 421. 



OP THOMAS JEFFRSON. 199 

the next day. Within less than forty-eight hours, they had pene- 
trated thirty-three miles into the country, committed the whole inju- 
ry, and retreated down the river. The Governor himself narrowly 
escaped being taken, owing to the suddenness of the attack, and his 
continuance on the scene of danger, at an unreasonable hour, for the 
purpose of securing the public property. He had previously sent off 
ills family to Tuckahoe, eight miles above Richmond, on tlie same 
side of the river ; but did not join them himself until 1 o'clock in 
the night He returned the next morning, and continued his person- 
al attendance in the vicinity of the metropolis, during the whole in- 
vasion, to the imminent exposure of his life ; and yet, the virulence of 
party spirit has imputed to him not only flagrant remissness, but a' 
want of common courage on this occasion ! 

Arnold shortly after encamped at Portsmouth, where he remain- 
ed for a long time, in close quarters, panic struck with guilt, and 
harrowed by the tortures of the lowest hell. The capture of this 
execrable traitor had, from the moment of his perfidy, been an ob- 
ject of eager pursuit with all the patriots. Mr. Jefferson was induc- 
ed to consider the plan practicable, while in his present situation. 

The following letter to General Muhlenburgh, dated Richmond, 
January 31, 'SI, developes the scheme which he laid for the accom- 
plishment of so desirable an object. 

" Sir, — Acquainted as you are with the treasons of Arnold, I need 
say nothing for your information, or to give you a proper sentiment 
of them. You will readily suppose, that it is above all things desir- 
able to drag him from those, under whose wing he is now shekered. 
On his march to and from this place, I am certain it might have been 
done with facility, by men of enterprise and firmness. I think it 
may still be done, though perhaps, not quite so easily. Having pe- 
culiar confidence in the men from the western side of the moun- 
tains, I meant, as soon as they should come down, to get the enter- 
prise proposed to a chosen number of them, such, whose courage 
and whose fidehty would be above all doubt. Your perfect knowl- 
edge of those men personally, and my confidence in your discretion, 
induce me to ask you to pick from among them, proper characters, 
in such numbers as you think best ; to reveal to them our desire ; 
and engage them to undertake to seize and bring off this greatest of 
all traitors. Whether this may be best effected by their going in as 
friends, and awaiting their opportunity, or otherwise, is left to them- 
selves. The smaller the number, the better, so that they may be 
sufficient to manage him. Every necessary caution must be used 
on their part, to prevent a discovery of their design by the enemy. 



200 LIl-^E, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

I will undei-take, if they are successful in bringing him ofi' aiivey 
that they shall receive five thousand guineas reward among them; 
and to men formed for such an enterprise, it must be a great incite- 
ment to know, that their names will be recorded with glory in his- 
tory, with those of Vanwert, Paulding and Williams." 

Bold and adventurous spirits were found in Muhlenburg's corps, 
who panted to undertake the daring enterprise ; but Arnold had 
become cautious and circumspect, beyond the reach of stratagem ; 
he lay buried in close confinement at Portsmouth, suffered no stran- 
ger to approach him, and never afterwards unguardedly exposed 
his person. The project, therefore, was rendered abortive. 

The real situation of Virginia, at this period, is forcibly depicted 
111 the letteis and dispatches of the Governor. " The fatal want of 
arms," he wrote on the 8th of February, "puts it out of our power 
to bring a greater force into the field than will barely suffice to re- 
strain the adventures of the pitiful body of men the enemy have at 
Portsmouth. Should they be reinforced, the country will be perfect- 
ly open to them by land as well as by water." " I have been 
knocking at the door of Congress," he again wrote on die 17th, "for 
aids of all kinds, but especially of arms, ever since the middle of 
summer. The speaker, Harrison, is gone to be heard on that sub- 
ject. Justice, indeed, requires that we should be aided powerfully. 
Yet, if they would only repay us the arms we have lent them, we 
should give the enemy troul^le, though abandoned to ourselves," 
On the same day, he addressed the Commander in Chief, as fol- 
lows : "Arms and a naval force, are the only means of salvation 
for Virginia. Two days ago, I received information of the arrival of 
a sixty-four gun ship and two frigates, in our Bay, being part of the 
fleet of our good Ally, at Rhode-Island. Could they get at the Brit- 
ish ships, they are sufficient to destroy them, but these are drawn 
up into EUzabeth river, into which the sixty-four cannot enter. I 
apprehend they could do nothing more than block up the river. 
This, indeed, would reduce the enem}", as we could cut off" their sup- 
plies by land ; but the operation requiring much time, would proba- 
bly be too dangerous for the auxiliary force. Not having yet had 
any particular information of the designs of the French commander, 
I cannot pretend to say what measures this will lead to." 

This desperate situation of affairs Avas aggravated by the arrival 
in the Bay, of two thousand additional British troops, under the 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON". 201 

coniinand of Major General Phillips. This powerful reinforcement 
shortly after formed a junction with Arnold, and the combined 
forces, under Phillipsj immediately renewed, on a more extensive 
scale than heretofore, their favorite system of predatory and incen- 
diary incursions into all parts of the unprotected country. They 
captured and laid waste Williamsburg, Petersburg, and several min- 
or settlements ; and pursued their destroying advances from vil- 
lage to village, until they were arrested in their vandal career, by the 
gallant defender of universal liberty — the immortal La Fayette. 
During the ferocious and discursive operations of PhiUips and Ar- 
nold, the Governor remained constantly in and about Richmond, ex- 
erting all his powers for collecting the militia, and providing sitch 
means for the defence of the State, as its exhausted resources ad- 
mitted. Never assuming a guard, and w^ith only the river between 
him and the enemy, his lodgings were frequently within four or five 
miles of them, and his personal exposure, consequently, very great. 

But the grand and final movement against Virginia, compared 
to which, the previous invasions were feeble and desultory efTbrts, 
remains to be mentioned. On the 20th of May, 1781, Lord Corn- 
wallis entered the State, on the southern frontier, with an army of 
four thousand men. His entry was almost triumphal ; and, pro- 
ceeding directly to Petersburg, where he formed a junction with the 
forces under Phillips and Arnold, he estabUshed head quarters, and 
commenced his vaunted plan of subduing the whole State. 

This alarming event happened but a few days previous to the 
close of Mr. Jefferson's administration ; and, in view of the awful 
crisis which impended over his native State, he felt it his duty, be- 
fore resigning the government into other hands, to make one, last, 
solemn appeal to the Commander in Chief, for those important suc- 
cors, so often before solicited, and on which now evidently depend- 
ed the salvation of the Commonwealth. 

"Your Excellency will 
judge from this state of things, and from what you know of our 
country, what it may probably suffer during the present campaign. 
Should the enemy be able to produce no opportunity of annihila- 
ting the Marquis's army, a small proportion of their force may yet 
restrain his movements effectually, while the greater part are em- 
ployed, in detachment, to waste an unarmed country, and lead the 
minds of the people to acquiescence under those events, which they 
see no human power prepared to ward off". We are too far re- 

18* 



202 LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

moved from the other scenes of war to say, whether tlie main force 
of the enemy be within this State. But I suppose they cannot 
any where spare so great an army for the operations of the field. 
Were it possike for this circumstance to justify in your Excellency, 
a determination to lend us your personal aid, it is evident from the 
imiversal voice, that the presence of their beloved countryman, 
whose talents have so long been successfully employed in estab- 
lishing the freedom of kindred States, to whose person, they have 
:^till flattered themselves they retained some right, and have ever 
looked up, as their dernier resort in distress, would restore full 
confidence of salvation to our citizens, and would render them 
et|ual to whatever is not impossiljle. I cannot undertake to foresee 
and obviate the difficulties which lie in the way of such a resolu- 
tion. The whole subject is before you, of which I see only detach- 
ed parts : and your judgment will be formed on a view of the 
whole. Should the danger of this State, and its consequence to 
the Union, be such, as to render it best for the whole that you 
should repair to its assistance, the difticulty woidd then be, how to 
keep men out of the field. I have undertaken to hint this mat- 
ter to your Excellency, not only on my ow^n sense of its importance 
to us, but at the solicitations of many members of weight in our 
Legislature, which has not yet assembled to speak their own desires." 
"A few days will bring to me that relief which the constitution 
has prepared for those oppressed with the labors of my office, and a 
long declared resolution of relinquishing it to abler hands, has pre- 
pared my way for retirement to a private station : still, as an indi- 
vidual, 1 should feel the comfortable effects of your presence, and 
have (what I thought could not have been) an additional motive 
for that gratitude, esteem, and respect, with which I have the hon- 
or to be," &c. 

This interesting letter was written but three days previous to the 
expiration of his second gubernatorial year ; at which time, he had 
long cherished the determination of relinquishing the administra- 
tion in favor of a successor, whose habits, dispositions and pursuits, 
would render him better fitted for the supreme direction of affairs, 
at such a crisis. " From the beUef," said he, " that, under the pres- 
sure of the invasion, under which Ave were then laboring, the pub- 
lic would have more confidence in a military chief, and that the 
military commander being invested with the civil power also, both 
niiglit be wielded with more energy, promptitude and effect for the 
defence of the State, I resigned the administration at the end of 
my second year, and General Nelson was appointed to succeed me."^ 
His successor was elected, on the 12th of June, 17S1. 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 203^ 

The closing" events of Mr. Jefi'erson's administration, having ex- 
cited much attention, and occasioned some misrepresentation, a few 
additional observations, founded on authentic documents, may not 
be unacceptable to the candid reader. 

Ever since the invasion of the metropolis, vmder Arnold, in 
January, 'SI, and the sudden dispersion, by that event, of the Gen- 
eral Assembly, the legislative functions of the government had 
been almost totally suspended ; the meml^ers had re-assembled on 
the first of March, but after a few days session, were compelled to 
adjourn ; they met again on the 7th of May, but the threatening 
movements of the enemy, again compelled them, on the 10th, to 
adjourn to Charlottesville, to met on the 24th. During (his long 
and critical interval, therefore, the main burden of public afiairs 
had devolved on the Governor. The weight of anxiety, of re- 
sponsibility, of personal labor and suffering, which he was called on 
to endure, no one, who is a stranger to that disastrous period, can 
adequately conceive. In the discharge of the arduous and multi- 
plied services, which were required to conduct the administration 
through a series of formidable invasions, he was cool, sagacious, 
vigilant, and indefatigable ; but, without continental aids, confined 
to the resources of the State, exhausted of them, in great part, by 
the draughts he had furnished to other States, and limited in his 
resort to the remainder, by the destitution of arms, his exertions 
were nearly paralyzed, and the public mind began seriously to de- 
spond. 

In addition to the multiplied irruptions from the East and the 
South, Virginia had had a powerful army to oppose on her West- 
ern frontier. The English and Indians were incessantly harass- 
ing her in that quarter, by their savage ijicursions. At lengthy 
the powerful army under CornwalUs, poun^d into the State, and 
filled up the measure of public danger and distress. The Legisla- 
ture, which had hastily adjourned from Richmond to Charlottes- 
ville, had scarcely assembled at the latter place, when they were 
driven thence by the enemy, over the mountains to Staunton. 
This was on the last days of May. Pursued and hunted, in this 
manner, from county to -count}'', with the armies of the enemy in 
the heart of the State, destitute of internal resources, and aided 
only by the inconsiderable regular force under La Fayette, many 
members of that heroic Assembly became dissatisfied, discouraged, 



204 LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

desperate ; and in the phrenzy of the moment, began to resusci- 
tat^ the deceased and damning project of Dictator. Some, indeed, 
were so infatuated as to deem the measure not only sakitary and 
advisable, but as presenting the only hope of deliverance at this 
alarming juncture. An individual,* who had borne a distinguished 
and exemplary part in the anterior transactions of the Revolu- 
tion, was already designated for the contemplated office. But it 
was foreseen with dismay by the dictator men, that no headway 
could be made with such a proposition, against the transcendant 
popularity and influence of the present Executive ; it was necessa- 
ry, as a first measure, that he should be put completely hors de 
combat. For this purpose, his official character was attacked ; the 
misfortunes of the period, were imputed to the imbecility of his ad- 
ministration ; he was impeached in a loose, informal way, and a 
day for some species of hearing, at the succeeding session of the 
Assembly, was appouited. But no evidence was ever offered to sus- , 
tain the impeachment ; no question was ever taken upon it, disclos- 
ing in any manner, the approbation of the legislature ; and the hear- 
ing was appointed by general consent, for the purpose, as many 
members expressed themselves, of giving Mr. Jefferson an oppor- 
tunity of demonstrating the absurdity of the censure. Indeed, the 
whole effort at impeachment was a mere feint, designed to remove 
Mr. Jefferson out of the question, for the present, and to make man- 
ifest, if possible, the necessity of a Dictator. It failed, however, in 
both objects ; the effect on Mr. Jefferson was entirely the reverse of 
what had been intended ; and as to the proposed dictatorship, the 
pulse of the Assembly was incidentally felt in the debates on the 
state of the Commonwealth, and in out-door conversations, the 
general tone of which, foretold such a violent opposition to the 
measure, as induced the original movers to abandon it with precip- 
itation. This was the second instance of a similar attempt in that 
State, and of a similar result, caused chiefly by the virtuous and 
insuperable ascendancy of the same individuals. 

While these things were going on at Staunton, Mi*. Jefferson 
was distant from the scene of action, at Bedford, neither interfering 
himself, nor applied to by the Legislature for any information touch- 
ing the charges preferred against him ; but so soon as the project 

* Mr, Henry. 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSOX. 203 

for a dictator was dropped, his resignation of the Government 
apjjeared. This produced a new scene ; the dictator men insisted 
upon re-electing him ; but his friends strenuously opposed it, on the 
grounds, that as he had divested himself of the government to heal 
the divisions of the Legislature, at that critical season, for the pul)- 
lic good ; and to meet the accusation upon equal terms, for his own 
lionor, his motives were too strong to be relinquished, and too fair 
to be withstood. Still, on the nomination of General Nelson, the 
most popular man in the State, and without an enemy in the Le- 
gislature, a considerable portion of the Assembly voted for Mr. 
Jefferson. 

On the day appointed for the hearing before mentioned, Mr. Jef- 
ferson appeared in the House of Delegates, having been interme- 
diately elected a member. No one offered himself as his accuser. 
Mr. George Nicholas, who had been seduced to institute the pro- 
ceeding, and who afterwards paid him an homage equally honor- 
able to both,* having satisfied himself, in the interim, of the utter 
groundlessness of the charges, declined the further prosecution of 
the alfair. Mr. Jefferson, nevertheless, rose in his seat, addressed 
the House in general terms upon the subject, and expressed his 
readiness to answer any accusations which might be preferred 
against him. Silence ensued. Not a word of censure was whis- 
pered. After a short pause, the following resolution was proposed, 
and adopted unanimously by both Houses.t 

'• Resolved, That the sincere thanks of the General Assembly 
be given to our former Governor, Thomas Jefferson, Esq. for 
his impartial, upright and attentive administration, whilst in ofl[ice. 
The Assembly wish in the strongest manner to declare the high 
opinion which they entertain of Mr. Jefferson's ability, rectitude, 
and integrity, as Chief Magistrate of this Commonwealth, and 
mean, by thus publicly avowing their opinion, to obviate and to 
remove ^1 unmerited censure." 

A few days after the expiration of Mr. Jefferson's constitutional 
term of office, and before the appointment of his successor, an in- 
cident occurred which has been so strangely misrepresented, in 
later times, as to justify a relation of the details. 



* G. Nicholas' letter to his constituents — Kentucky. 

T Most of this relation is copied with verbal precision from the statement of an 
eyewitness of the whole transaction, inserted in the Appendix to the Continua~ 
tion of Burk's History of Virginia, 



206 LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OFINIOJfS 

Learning that the General Assembly was in session at Char- 
lottesville, Cornwallis detached the "ferocious Tarlton," as notori- 
ously styled, to proceed to that place, take by surprise the members, 
seize on the person of Mr. Jefferson, whom they supposed still in 
office, and spread devastation and terror on his route. 

Elated with the idea of an enterprise so congenial to his dispo- 
sition, and confident of an easy prey, Tarlton selected a competent 
body of men, trained to habitual licentiousness by unrestrained 
indulgence and the demoralizing influence of example, and pro- 
ceeded with ardor on his ignoble expedition. Early in the morn- 
ing of June 4th, when within about ten miles of his destination, 
he detached a troop of horse, under Captain M'Cleod, to Monticello, 
the well known seat of Mr. Jefferson ; and proceeded himself with 
the main body, to Charlottesville, were he expected to find the 
Legislature unapprised of his movement. The alarm, however, 
had been conveyed to Charlottesville, about sunrise the same morn- 
ing, and thence quickly to Monticello, only three miles distant. 
The Speakers of the two Houses, were lodging with Mr. Jefferson 
at his house. His guests had barely time to hurry to Charlottes- 
ville, adjourn the Legislature over to Staunton, and, with most of 
the other members, to effect their escape. He imniediately ordered 
his carnage, in which Mrs. Jefferson and her children were conveyed 
to the house of Colonel Carter, on the neighbouring mountain, while 
himself tarried behind, breakfasted as usual, and completed some 
necessary arrangements preparatory to his departure. Suddenly, a 
messenger. Lieutenant Hudson, who had descried the rapid ad- 
vance of the enemy, drove up at half speed, and gave him a 
second and last alarm ; stating that the enemy were already as- 
cending the winding road, which leads to the summit of Monticello, 
and urging his immediate flight. He then calmly ordered his riding 
horse, which was shoeing at a neighboring blacksmiths, directing 
him to be led to a gate opening on the road to Colonel Carter's, 
whither he walked by a cross path, mounted his horse, and, instead 
of taking the high road, plunged into the woods of the adjoining 
mounting, and soon rejoined his family. In less than ten minutes 
after Mr. Jefferson's departure, his house was surrounded by the 
impetuous light horse, thirsting for their noble prey. They entered 
the mansion of the patriot, with a flush of expectation proportioned 
to the value of their supposed victim ; and, notwithstanding the 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 207 

cliagiiii and irritation which the first discovery of their disappointment 
excited, a sacred and honorable regard was manifested for the tisa- 
ges of enUghtened nations at war. Mr. Jefferson's property was 
respected, especially his books and papers, by the particular injunc- 
tions of M'Cleod. So much does the conduct of soldiers, depend 
on the principles and temper of their officers. 

This is the famous adventure of Carter's mountain, which has 
been so often and so scandalously caricatured in the licentious chron- 
icles of partisan controversy. Had the facts been accidentally sta- 
ted, it would have appeared, that this favorite fabrication amounted 
to nothing more, than that Mr. Jefferson did not remain in his 
house, and there fight, single handed, a whole troop of horse, whose 
main body, too, was within supporting distance, or suffer himself to 
be taken prisoner. It is somewhat singular, that this egregious of- 
fence was never heard of until many years after, when most of 
that generation had disappeared, and a new one risen up. Al- 
though the whole affair happened some days before the abortive at- 
tempt at impeachment, yet neither his conduct on this occasion, 
nor his pretended flight from Richmond, in January previous, were 
included among the charges. 

Having accompanied his family one day's journey, Mr. Jefferson 
returned to Monticello. Finding the enemy retired, with few traces 
of depredation, he again rejoined his family, and proceeded with 
them to an estate he owned in Bedford ; where, galloping over his 
farm one day, he was thrown from his horse, and disabled from 
riding on horse-back for a considerable time. But the federal ver- 
sion of the story found it more convenient to give him this fall in 
his retreat before Tarlton, some weeks anterior, as a proof that be 
withdrew from a troop of horse, with a precipitancy which Don 
Quixote would not Imve practiced. 

M'Cleod tarried about eighteen hours at Monticello, and Tarlton 
about the same time at Charlottesville, when the detachments re- 
united, and retired to Elkhill, a plantation of Mr. Jefferson's. At 
this place, Cornwallis had now encamped, with the main army, and 
estabUshed head quarters. Some idea may be formed of the van- 
dahsm practiced by the British, during their continuance at Elkhill, 
and, indeed, through the whole succeeding part of that campaign, 
from the following extract of a letter, written by Mr. Jefferson, on 



208 LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

a special request. It is dated July 16th, 1788, and addressed to 
Dr. Gordon, one of the compilers of our revolutionary history. 

" Cornwallis remained in this position ten days, his own head- 
quarters being in my house, at that place. I had time to remove 
most of the effects out of the house. He destro37ed all my growing 
crops of corn and tobacco ; he burned all my barns, containing the 
same articles of the last year, having first taken what corn he wan- 
ted ; he used, as was ''to be expected, all my stock of cattle, sheep, 
and hogs, for the sustenance of his army, and carried of all the 
horses capable of service ; of those too young for service, he cut 
the throats ; and he burned all the fences on the plantation so as to 
leave it an absolute waste. He carried off also about thirty slaves. 
Had this been to give them freedom, he would have done right ; 
but it was to consign them to inevitable death from the small-pox 
and putrid fever, then raging in his camp. This I knew after 
wards to be the fate of twenty-seven of them. I never had news 
of the remaining three, but presume they shared the same fate. 
When I say that Lord Cornwallis did all this, I do not mean that 
he carried about the torch in his own hands, but that it was all 
done under his eye ; the situation of the house in which he was, 
commanding a view of every part of the plantation, so that he must 
have seen every fire. I relate these things on my own knowledge, 
in a great degree, as I was on the ground soon after he left it. 
He treated the rest of the neighborhood somewhat in the same 
style, but not with that spirit of total extermination with which he 
seemed to rage over my possessions. Wherever he went, the dwel- 
ling-houses were plundered of every thing which could be carried 
off. Lord Cornwallis' character in England would forbid the belief 
that he shared in the plunder ; but that his table was served with 
the plate thus pillaged from piivate houses, can be proved by many 
himdred eye-witnesses. From an estimate I made at that time, 
on the best information I could collect, I supposed the State of 
Virginia lost under Lord Cornwallis' hands, that year, about thirty 
thousand slaves ; and that of these, about twenty-seven thousand 
died of the small-pox and camp-fever, and the rest were partly sent 
to the West Indies, and exchanged for rum, sugar, coffee, and fruit, 
and partly sent to New York, from whence they went, at the 
peace, either to Nova Scotia or England. From this last place, I 
beheve they have been lately sent to Africa. History will never re- 
late the horrors committed by the British army, in the southern 
States of America. They raged in Virginia six months only, from 
the middle of April to the middle of October, 1781, when they 
were all taken prisoners ; and I give you a faithfid specimen of 
their transactions for ten days of that time, and on one spot orily. 
Ex jyede Herculem. I suppose their whole devastations during 
those six months, amounted to about three millions sterling." 



t)P THOMAS JEFFERSON. 209 

We are now hurried, with instinctive pleasure, from the distress- 
ing scenes of war and confusion, to a deUghtful interval in Mr. 
Jefferson's life, in which he recurred with eagerness, to the sober 
and refreshing pursuits of science. 

During the early part of the turbulent year of '81, while disabled 
from active employment by the fall hom his horse, he found suffi- 
cient leisure to compose his celebrated " Notes on Virginia" ; than 
which, no other work in the English language, of tlie same mag- 
nitude, possesses more substantial merits, or has attained a more 
extensive and abiding reputation. This was the only original pub- 
lication in which he ever embarked ; nor was the present work 
prepared with any intention, whatever, of committing it to the press. 
Its history is a httle curious. 

M. de Marbois, of the French legation, in Philadelphia, having 
heen instructed by his government to obtain such statistical ac- 
counts of the different States of the Union, as might be useful for 
their information, addressed a letter to Mr. Jefferson, containing a 
number of queries relative to the State of Virginia. These queries 
embraced an extensive range of objects, and were designed to elicit 
a general view of the geography, natural productions, government, 
history, and laws of the Commonwealth. Mr. Jefferson had al- 
ways made it a practice, when . travelling, to' commit his observa- 
tions to writing ; and to improve every opportunity, by conversa- 
tions with the inhabitants, and by personal examination, to enlarge 
his stock of information on the physical and moral condition of the 
country. 

These memoranda were on loose pieces of paper, promiscuously 
intermixed, and difficult of recurrence, when occasion required the 
use of any particular one. He improved tire present opportunity, 
therefore, to digest and embody the substance of them, in the order 
of M. de Marbois queries, so as to answer tlie double purpose of 
gratifying the wishes of the French government, and of arranging 
them for his own convenience. Some friends, to whom they were 
occasionally communicated in manuscript, requested copies ; but 
their volume rendering the business of transcribing too laborious, 
he proposed to get a few printed, for their private gratification. He 
was asked such a price, however, as exceeded, in his opinion, the 
importance of the object, and abandoned the idea. Subsequent- 
ly, on his arrival in Paris in '84, he found the printing could be ob- 

19 



210 LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

tallied for one fourth part of what he had been asked in America. 
He thereupon revised and corrected the work, and had two hundred 
copies printed, under the modest title which it bears. He gave out 
a very few copies, to his particular friends in Europe, writing in 
each one a restraint against its publication ; and the remainder he 
transmitted to his friends in America, An European copy, by the 
death of the owner, having got into the hands of a Paris booksel- 
ler, he engaged a hirehng translation, and sent it into the world in 
the most injurious form possible. " I never had seen," says the Au- 
thor, " so wretched an attempt at translation. Interverted, abridg- 
, ed, mutilated, and often reversing the sense of the original, I found 
it a blotch of errors from beginning to end." Under these circum- 
stances, he w^as urged by the principle of self defence, to comply 
with the request of a London bookseller, to publish the English 
original ; which he accordingly did. By this means, it soon be- 
came extensively the pioperty of the public, and advanced to a 
high degree of popularity. The work has since been translated 
into all the principal tongues of Europe, and run through a large 
number of editions in England, France,* and America. 

The principal attractions of this unambitious volume are, the 
solid mass of science, natural and historical, which it contains ; its 
sound philosophy in matters of government, religion, morals, <fcc. : 
its triumphant vindication of the man of America, aboriginal and 
emigrant, and the other cis-atlantic animals, against the fanciful and 
contumelious theories of European philosophers ; the quantity and 
variety of general information on useful collateral subjects, Avhich 
it embraces ; and the beauty and unpretending simphcity of its 

style. 

The first five chapters, in pursuance of the order of M.'de Marbois 
queries, are occupied with geographical details, comprehending a 
description of the extent and boundaries of Virginia ; a circumstan- 
tial account of its rivers, their navigableness, and connections with 
the Atlantic ; a philosophical view of its stupendous mountains, 
its beautiful cascades, caverns, and other interesting curiosities of 
nature, with the phenomena attending them. Our Hmits will not 
permit us to indulge in quotations, or the reader should he gratified 
with the Author's description of the passage of the Potowmac 



* The celebrated Abbe Morellet published a translation of his Notes, in 1786. 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 



211 



througli the Blue Ridge, which he calls 'one of the most stupendous 
scenes in nature, and wortli a voyage across the Atlantic' 

The sixth chapter commences with a minute and scientific no- 
tice of the mines, minerals, mineral waters, and other subter- 
raneous treasui-es of the State, interspersed with interesting specu- 
lations in geology and cosraogeny ; branches thence into the bound- 
less regions of the botanical kingdom, presenting an elaborate synop- 
sis of its trees, plants, fruits, and every variety of vegetable growth, 
spontaneous and cultivated ; and concludes with a luminous and 
learned dissertation on the brute animals, and on the man of 
America, exhibiting a comparative view of the size of the former, 
and the prowess, physical and intellectual, of the latter, vnih. those 
of their corresponding species in Europe. 

In treating this part of the subject, the Author indulges a latitude 
of enquiry, for the purpose of vindicating the character of his rising 
country, against the ignorant or malevolent aspersions of European 
physiologists, particularly Mons. de Buffon and the Abbe Raynal. 
By the former of these celebrated naturalists, the opinion had been 
gravely advanced, that the animals common to both the old and 
new world, were smaller in the latter ; that those jjeculiar to the 
new were on a smaller scale, and exhibited fewer species ; that those 
which have been domesticated in both, have degenerated in Amer- 
ica ; and that the same inherent inferiority marked the aboriginal 
man of this continent ; — by the latter, this degrading hypothesis had 
been extended, so as to comprehend the white man, and European 
emigrant, as well as the native inhabitant. These visionary opin- 
ions, built on strained speculation, and not on fact, or the legitimate 
deductions of science, have been scouted by the increasing intelli- 
gence of succeeding times, yet they were generally believed, by the 
learned and unlearned, until overthrown by the Author of this w^ork. 
Instead of opposing one hypothesis to another, and relying on 
grounds merely speculative, he met and refuted the positions of his 
learned antagonists, by bringing them, at once, to the standard of 
fact and experiment. He measures and weighs the animal of each 
species, in the old and new world, and by a tabular comparative 
statement of the result, reduces the whole question to a mere mat- 
ter of arithmetical calculation. 

In illustrating the intellectual equality of the American abori- 
gines, he appeals to the living monuments of their genius, and chal- 



212 LIFEj WRiTINGSj AND OPINIONS 

ienges the annals of European eloquence, to produce a single p?i»' 
sage superior to the celebrated speech of Logan, a Mungo chiefs 
In refutation of the pretended degeneracy of the wliite man of 
America, he appeals to examples of moral gieatness, whose memo- 
ries shall flourish and be revered, Avhen the sapient calumniators of 
America shall have been consigned to oblivion. 

"In war, we have produced a Washington, whose memory will 
be adored while liberty shall have votaries ; whose name will tri- 
umph over time, and will in future ages assume its just station 
among the most celebrated Avorthies of the world, w^hen tliat wretch- 
ed philosophy shall be forgotten, which would have arranged him 
among the degeneracies of nature. In physics, we have produced a 
Franklin, than whom no one of the present age has made more im- 
portant discoveries, or has enriched philosophy Avith more, or more 
ingenious solutions of the phenomena of nature. We have suppos- 
ed Mr. Rittenhouse second to no astronomer living : that in genin^* 
he must be first, because he is self-taught. As an artist he has ex- 
liibited as great a proof of mechanical genius as the world has ever 
produced. He has not indeed made a w^orld ; but he has by imita- 
tion approached nearer its Maker, than any man who has lived from 
the cieation to this day. As in philosophy and war, so in govern- 
ment, in oratory, in painting, in the plastic art, we might show that 
America, though but a child of yesterday, has already given hope- 
ful proofs of genius, as well of the nobler kinds, which arouse the 
best feelings of man, w^hich call him into action, which substantiate 
his freedom, and conduct him to happiness, as of the subordinate, 
which serve to amuse him only." 

The six succeeding heads of enquiry, proposed by M. de Marbois. 
opened the way for the ingenious lucubrations of the Author, on the 
climate of Virginia, its varieties, changes, and their causes ; the 
number of inhabitants, of every age, sex, and color, with some val- 
uable observations on the dangers of foreign influence in the affaii"s 
of our government, arising from excessive emigration ; on the num- 
ber and condition of the militia and regular troops, with the man- 
ner in which they are embodied and recruited ; on the number and 
condition of the Indian tiibes estabhshed in the State, their manners, 
customs, and history, with an ingenious solution of the great ques- 
tion respecting the origin of this singular race of people, on philolo- 
gical grounds. A knowledge of their several languages he consid- 
ered as furnishing the most certain evidence of their derivation. 
Under this idea, he spent thirty years in endeavoring to procure In- 
dian vocabularies to the same set of words. He had collected about 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 



213 



fifty, and digested them in collateral columns. Of the two hundred 
and fifty words of his vocabularies, and the one hundred and thirty 
words of the great Russian vocabularies of the languages of the oth- 
er quarters of the globe, seventy-three were common to both, and 
would have furnished materials, from which something satisfactory 
might have resulted ; but, by an "irreparable misfortune," as he 
termed it, the whole, both digest and originals, were stolen from a 
trunk while ascending James river, thrown into the river by the 
thief, and but a small fragment of them was ever recovered. 

Under the query relative to the several charters of the State, and 
its present form of government, Mr. Jefferson presents a compact 
statistical view of the Colony, from the first settlement under the 
grant of Glueen Elizabeth, in 1584, down to the time at which he 
wrote ; gives the outlines of the existing Constitution, and enumer- 
ates what he considers its capital defects. 

A brief notice of these defects, and the remedies which he propos- 
ed, will explain more fully, as was promised, the opinions of Mr. 
Jefferson on the Constitution of Virginia, being the first republican 
charter ever known. In the appendix to the volume under review, 
is inserted a new Constitution, prepared by himself, in 1783, when 
it was expected the Assembly of Virginia would call a Convention 
for remodeling the old one, — an event which he long and vainly 
desired to see. This draught corresponds, in all its main features, 
with the one prepared by him while in Congress, in 1776, and 
transmitted to the Convention in Virginia, then sitting for that pur- 
pose, though received too late to be adopted. 

Among the palpable defects of the existing estabUshment, he enu- 
merates : 1. The want of universal suffrage, — or rather such an 
extension of the elective franchise, as would give a voice in the gov- 
ernment to all those who pay and fight for its support. This is the 
vital principle of a pure democracy ; and Mr. Jefferson appears to 
have been the first politician, of whom we have any information, 
who ventured forth publicly as its advocate. Possessed of a large 
estate himself, and gratified with the enjoyment of every honor, no 
personal ambition could be supposed to enter into his motives, and 
his opinion was received with great weight. The principle has since 
been incorporated, with greater or less modifications, into the Con- 
stitutions of almost all the States. The predominance of the land- 
ed influence, family aristocracy, and a general repugnance to risk- 

19* 



214 LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

iiig- innovations, have hitherto retained the freehold quahfication in 
Virginia ; though its rigor has been modified by recent amendments- 
The success of the experiment, wherever it hag been tried, has 
abundantly tested the soundness of the principle. 

2. InequaUty of representation. This deformity pervaded the 
first repubhcaii charter of Virginia, to an astonishing degree. Mr. 
Jefferson detects and exposes the evil in a strong hght, l)y a tabular 
statement of the relative number of electors and representatives in 
each county ; and calls the attention of his countrymen to the sub- 
ject, in an impressive manner. According to his statement, the 
county of Warwick, with only one hundred electors, had an equal 
representation with the county of Loudon, having 1700 electors : 
and taking the State at large, 19,000 men in one part, were enabled 
to give law to up-wards of 30,000 in the remaining part. This de- 
fect was remedied by the late Constitution. 

3. The Senate is necessarily too homogeneous with the House of 
Delegates. Being chosen by the same electors, at the same tune, 
and oHt of the same subjects, the choice falls of course on the same 
description of men ; defeating thereby the great purpose of establish- 
ing different Houses of legislation, which is to introduce the influ- 
ence of different interests or different principles. 

4. The want of a sufficient barrier between the legislative, judi- 
ciary, and executive powers of the government. The concentration 
of these in the same hands, constituted, in his opinion, the precise 
definition of despotism. By the Constitution of Virginia, they alt 
remlted to the same body, the Legislature, though they were exer- 
cised by different bodies. He proclaims a solemn warning again^^t 
this heresy, and invokes an immediate apphcation of the remedy ; 
urging, that the time to guard against corruption and tyranny, is be- 

• fore they shall have seized the heads of the government, and been 
spread by them through the body of the people. " It is better," says 
he, "to keep the wolf out of the field, than to trust to drawing his 
teeth and talons after he shall have entered."' 

5 and 6. Finally^ as objections of the greatest magnitude, Mr. 
Jefferson argued, that the Constitution itself w^as a mere legislative 
ordinance, enacted at a critical time, for a temporary purpose, not 
superior to the ordinary Legislature, but alterable by it ; and that 
the Assembly, possessing the right, as tliey did, of determining a 
(luorura of their own body, might convert the government into an 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 215 

absolute despotism, at any moment, by consolidating' all its powerg, 
and placing then in the hands of a single individual. To the joint 
operation of these two defects, aided by the inauspicious temper of 
the times, he ascribed the infatuated attempt of the Legislature, in 
1776, repeated in 'SI, to surrender the liberties of the people into 
the hands of a Dictator. He concludes his remarks upon the Con- 
jstitution by a solemn appeal to the people, for their speedy interpo- 
sition. 

" Oar situation is indeed perilous, and I hope my countrymen will 
be sensible of it, and will apply, at a proper season, the proper reme- 
dy ; which is a Convention to fix the Constitution, to amend its de- 
fects, to bind up the several branches of government by certain laws, 
which, when ihey transgress, their acts shall become nullities ; to 
render unnecessary an appeal to the people, or in other words, a re- 
Ijellion, on every infraction of their rights, on the peril tliat their ac- 
quiescence shall be construed into an intention to surrender those 
rights." 

Under the enquiry concerning the administration of justice, &c. 
the Author presents a view of the judiciary system of Vnginia, fram- 
ed, indeed, by himself, in '7(3 — with a general description of the 
laws. With a modesty peculiar to himself, he alludes to the Re- 
vised Code, as a work which bad been " executed by three gentle- 
men" — glances at the most important reformations which it intro- 
duced, but carefully conceals every circumstance which might in- 
dicate his participation in that splendid structure of republican juris- 
prudence. In commenting upon the benevolent provisions recom- 
mended in this Code, for the future disposition of the black*, the 
genius of the Author appears again in its favorite element. He in- 
sists upon colonization to a distant country, as the only safe and 
practicable mode of ultimate redemption ; and urges strong rea- 
sons of policy as well as necessity against their being retained in 
the State, and incorporated among the race of whites. " Deep 
rooted prejudices entertained by the whites ; ten thousand recollec- 
tions by the blacks, of the injuries they have sustained ; new prov- 
ocations ; the real distinctions which nature has made ; and many 
other chcumstances, will divide us into parties, and produce con- 
vulsions, which will probably never end, but in the extermination of 
the one or the other race." To these distinctions, which are polit- 
ical, he adds many others, which are physical and moral ; but space 
is not allowed us to pursue the subject, nor to follow the Author 



216 LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

through his elaborate and hiteiesting investigation of the question; 
whether the blacks and the Indians are inferior races of beings to 
the whites. Making all due allowances for the difference of condi- 
tion, education, &c. between the blacks and whites, still the evi- 
dences were too strong, not to admit doubts of the intellectual equal- 
ity of the two species. Of the former, many have been so situated, 
that they might have availed themselves of the conversation of 
their masters ; many have been brought up to the handicraft arts, 
and from that circumstance, have always been associated with the 
whites. Some have been liberally educated, have lived in coun- 
tries where the arts and sciences are cultivated to a high degree, 
and have had before their eyes, samples of the best workmanship, 
and of the noblest intelhgence. " But never yet," he adds, " could 
I find a black that had uttered a thought above the level of plain 
narration ; never seen even an elementary trait of painting or sculp • 
ture." Still, it was not against experience to suppose, that diflTerent 
species of the same genus, or varieties of the same species, might 
possess different quaUfications. The Indians, on the other hand, 
with none of the advantages above named, will often carve figures 
on their pipes, not destitute of design and merit. They will crayon 
out an animal, a plant, or a country, so as to prove the existence of 
a germ in their minds, which only wants cultivation. They will 
astonish you with strokes of the most subUme oratory, such as prove 
their reason and sentiment strong, their imagination glowing and 
elevated. On the whole, therefore, he advanced it as his opinion, 
that the Indians are equal to the whites, in body and mind ; and as 
a problem only, that the blacks, whether originally a distinct race, 
or made so by tune and circumstances, are inferior to them. To 
justify a conclusion, in the latter case, required observations which 
eluded the research of all the senses ; it should, therefore, be haz- 
arded with extreme caution, especially when such conclusion would 
degrade a whole race of men from the rank in the scale of beings, 
which their Creator may, perhaps, have assigned them. The dif- 
ference of color, feature, inclination, &c., is sufficient to warrant the 
presumption, that they were designed for a separate existence ; but 
it furnishes no evidence of the riffht to enslave and torment them as 
mere brutes. " "Will not a lover of natural history then," he con- 
cludes, "one who views the gi-adations in all the races of animals,- 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 



217 



with the eye of philosophy, excuse an effort to keep these in the de- 
paitinent of man as distinct as nature has formed them ?" 

The unhappy influence of slavery upon the manners and mor- 
als of the people, is forcibly portrayed in a succeeding chapter, 

" The whole commerce between -master and slave is a perpetual 
exercise of the most boisterous passions, the most nnremittmg des- 
potism on the one part, and degrading submission on the other. 
Our children see this, and learn to imitate it ; for man is an imita- 
tative animal. This quality is the germ of all education in him. 
From his cradle to his grave he is learning to do what he sees others 
do. If a parent could And no motive either in his philanthropy or 
his self-love, for restraining the intemperance of passion towards his 
slave, it should always be a sufficient one that his child is present. 
But generally it is not sufficient. The parent storms, the child 
looks on, catches the lineaments of wrath, puts on the same airs in 
the circle of smaller slaves, gives a loose to his worst passions, and 
thus nursed, educated, and daily exercised in tyranny, cannot but be 
stamped by it with odious peculiarities. The man must be a prodi- 
gy who can retain his manners and morals undepraved by such cir- 
cumstances. And with what execration should the statesman be 
loaded, who, permitting one half the citizens thus to trample on the 
rights of the other, transforms those into despots, and these into ene- 
mies ; destroys the morals of the one part, and the amor patris of 
tiie other. For if a slave can have a country in this world, it must 
be any other in preference to that in which he is born to live and la- 
bor for another : in which he must lock up the faculties of his na- 
ture, contribute as far as depends on his individual endeavors to the 
evanishment of the human race, or entail his own miserable condi- 
tion on the endless generations proceeding from him." 

The freedom of Mr. Jefferson's strictures on Slavery and the Con- 
stitution of Virginia, were the reasons, it appears, which influenced 
him to Hmit the circulation of the work, originally, to his confiden- 
tial friends. In his letters to them, accompanying the gift of a copy, 
he uniformly explains the motives by which he was actuated, in en- 
joining suppression. Those who. on marking the singular anxiety of 
the Author throughout that affair, thought personal delicacy the 
principal restraining cause, had not yet arrived at the proper stand- 
ard of estimating his principles of action. In presenting a copy of 
the work to General Chastellux, he thus writes : 

"I have been honored with the receipt .of your letter of the 2d 
instant, and am to thank you, as I do sincerel}?^, for the partiality 
with which you receive the copy of the Notes on my country. As 
I can answer for the facts therein reported on my own observation. 



S18 LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

and have admitted none on tlie report of others, which were not 
supported b}^ evidence suthcient to command my own assent, I am 
not afraid that you should make any extracts you please for the 
Journal de Physique, which come within their plan of publication. 
The strictures on Slavery and on the Constitution of Virginia, are 
not of that kind, and they are tke,parts which I do not wish to have 
made public, at least, till I know whetber their publication would do 
most harm or good. It is possible, that inmy oion country, these 
strictures viight j^rodnce on irritation, uhich would indispose 
thejicople toivards the tie o great objects I have in vierv ; that is, 
the emancipation of their slaves, and the settlejnent of their con- 
stitution on a firmer and more permanent basis. Ifl learn from 
thence, that they will not produce that effect, I have piinted and re- 
served just copies enough to be able to give one to every young man 
at the College. It is to them I look, to the rising generation, and 
not to the one now in power, for these great reformations." 

In transmitting copies to his friends in America, he expresses 
the same lofty reasons ; of which the following, in a letter to Mr. 
Monroe, is a sample. 

" I send you by Mr. Otto, a copy of my book. Be so good a« 
to ajwlogize to Mr. Thompson for my not sending him one by this 
coaiveyance. I could not burden Mr. Otto with more, on so long a 
road as that from here to L'Orient. I will send him one by a Mr. 
Williams, who will go ere long. I ha^'e taken measures to pre- 
vent its pubhcation. My reason is, that I fear the terms in which 
I sj^eak of slavery, and of our constitution, may produce an irrita- 
tion, which will revolt the minds of our countrymen against re- 
formation in these two articles, and thus do more harm than good. 
1 have asked of Mr. Madison to sound this matter as far as he 
cau, and if he thinks it will not produce that effect, I have then 
copies enough printed to give one to each of the young men at the 
College, and to my friends in the country." 

The remainder of this justly renowned Treatise, is occupied with 
useful details and learned dissertations, under the following lieads 
of enquiry : The Colleges, Public Estabhshments, and mode of 
Architecture in Virginia— The measures taken with regard to the 
Estates and Possessions of tories during the war — The different Re- 
ligions received into the State; — The particular Manners and Cus- 
toms of the people — The present state of Manufactures, Commerce, 
and Agriculture — The usual commodities of Export and Import — 
The Weights, Measvires, and Currency in hard money, with the 
rates of Exchange with Europe — The public Income and Expen- 
ses— 'The Histories of the State, the Memorials pubUshed under its 



OP THOMAS JEFFERSON." 219 

iTiame while a Colony, and a Chronological Catalogue of its State 
Papers since the commencement of the Revolution, 

Perhaps the most celebrated portion of the whole w^ork, k, that 
which contains the opinions of the Author on the subject of free 
ENCiuiRY in matters of religion. The interest which all mankind 
feel on a point so vitally connected with the policy of our govern- 
jnent, and the freedom and happiness of its subjects, will justify a 
liberal quotation here, in concluding our remarks upon these inval- 
uable " Notes." The sentiments of the writer, although generally 
esteemed heretical and well nigh impious, at the time, are now as 
generally reputed orthodox and unquestionable. 

" Reason and free inquiry are the only effectual agents against 
error. Give a loose to them, they will support the true religion, by 
bringing every false one to their tribunal, and to the test of their 
investigation. They are the natural enemies of error, and of error 
only. Had not the Roman government permitted free inquiry, 
Christianity could never have been introduced. Had not free in- 
«{uiry been indulged at the era of the reformation, the corruptions 
of Christianity could not have been purged away. If it be restrain- 
ed now, the present corruptions will be protected, and new ones en- 
couraged. Was the government to prescribe to us our medicine 
and diet, our bodies would be in such keeping as our souls are now. 
Thus in France, the emetic was once forbidden as a medicine, and 
the potatoe as an article of food. Government is just as infallibly 
too when it fixes systems in physics. Galileo was sent to the in- 
quisition for affirming that the earth was a sphere : the government 
had declared it to be as fiat as a trencher, and Galileo was obliged 
to abjure his error. This error, however, at length prevailed, the 
earth became a globe, and Descartes declared it was whirled round 
its axis by a vortex. The government in which he lived was wise 
enough to see, tlmt this was no question of civil jurisdiction, or 
we should all have been involved by authority in vortices. In fact, 
the vortices have been exploded, and the Newtonian principle 
of gravitation is now more firmly established, on the basis of rea- 
son, than it would be w"ere the government to step ui, and make it 
an article of necessary faith. Reason and experiment have been 
indulged, and error has fled before them. It is error alone which 
needs the support of government. Truth can stand by itself. 
Subject opinion to coercion : whom will you make your inquisitors ? 
FaUible men ; men governed by bad passions, by private as well as 
pubhc reasons. And why subject it to coercion ? To produce uni- 
formity. But is uniformity of opinion desirable J No more than 
of face and stature. Introduce ihe bed of Procrustes then, and as 
tiiere is danger that the great men may beat the small, make u». 



220 LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

all of a size, by lopping the former and stretching the latter. Dif- 
ference of opinion is advantageous in religion. The several sects 
perform the office of a censor moram over each other. Is uniform- 
ity attainable ? Millions of innocent men, women and children, 
since the introduction of Christianity, have been burnt, tortured, 
fined and imprisoned ; yet we have not advanced one inch towards 
uniformity. What has been the effect of coercion ? to make one 
half the world fools, and the other half hypocrites. To support 
roguery and error ail over the earth. Let us reflect that it is inhab- 
ited by a thousand millions of people. That these profess, proba- 
bly, a thousand different systems of religion. That ours is but one 
of that thousand. That if there be but one right, and ours that 
one, we should wish to see the nine hundred and ninety-nine wan- 
dering sects gathered into the fold of truth. But against such a 
majority we cannot effect this by force. Reason and persuasion 
are the only practicable instruments. To make way for these, free 
inquiry must be indulged ; how can we wish others to indulge it 
while we refuse it ourselves." 

On the 15th of June, 1781, Mr. Jefferson was appointed, with 
Mr. Adams, Dr. Frankhn, Mr. Jay and Mr. Laurens, a Minister 
Plenipotentiary, for negotiating peace, then expected to be effected 
through the mediation of the Empress of Russia. The same rea- 
sons, however, which induced hun to decline a foreign station in 
'76, constrained him, on the present occasion, to plead his excuse 
with Congress, and entreat permission to remain at home. " Such 
was the state of my family," says he, " that I could not leave it, 
nor could I expose it to the dangers of the sea, and of capture by the 
British ships, then cx)vering the ocean." This delicate restraint re- 
leased him from the meditated Embassy ; and the negotiation in 
fact, was never entered on. 

So imperfect is the light Avhich has been thrown on the private his- 
tory of Mr. Jefferson, that it was not thought proper to interrupt the 
narrative of his public career, for those general facts only, of a do- 
mestic character, which are incorporated in his recent auto-biogra- 
phy. He was married on the first of January, 1772, to Mrs. Mar- 
tha Skelton, widow of Bathurst Skelton, then twenty-three years 
of age. She was the daughter of John Wayles, a lawyer of ex- 
tensive practice, to which he had been introduced, more by his 
great industry, punctuality, and practical readiness, than by emi- 
nence in the science of his profession. He is represented to have 
been a most agreeable companion, full of pleasantry and good humor, 
which gave him a happy welcome into every society. He acquii'ed 



rOP THOMAS JEFFERSON. 221 

^ti immense foitune., by his practice at the bar, and died in May, 
1773, leaving three daughters. The portion which fell, on that 
event, to Mrs. Jefferson, was about equal to his own patrimony, and 
consequently doubled the affluence of their circumstances. 

At the period of which we have been speaking, Mr. Jefferson 
had three daughters ; in the education of whom, according to his 
own ideas, he carried into practical exercise, all that enthusiasm, 
which had distinguished his public endeavors in relation to the 
same subject. With a mind exquisitely attuned to all those en- 
dearments, which make up the measure of domestic felicity, with a 
wife no less adapted to multiply and augment those endearments, 
to the full extent of which they are susceptible, with an extraordi- 
nary passion for philosophy and the quiet operations of agriculture, 
it is not surprising he should have preferred, as he afterwards de- 
clared, ' the woods, the wilds, and the independence of Monticello, 
to all the brilliant pleasures of the most brilliant court in Europe.' 
It was to him, therefore, an inexpressible luxury, and one which 
he had not been permitted to enjoy since the commencement of the 
Revolution, to pass, as he did, the remainder of the year '81, and 
a considerable part of the succeeding, in the tranquil pleasures and 
pursuits of domestic retirement. With the cares and delights of his 
family, his books, and his farm, he mingled the gratification of his 
devotion to the Fine Arts, particularly architecture. He superin- 
tended minutely the construction of his elegant mansion, which 
had been commenced some years before, and was already in a hab- 
itable condition. The plan of the building was entirely original in 
this country. He had drawn it himself from books, with a view 
to improve the architecture of hie countrymen, by introducing an 
example of the tastes and arts of Europe. The original design of 
the structure, which was executed before his travels in Europe had 
supplied him with any models, is allowed by European travellers to 
have been infinitely superior, in taste and convenience, to that of 
any other house, at this time, in America.* The fame of the Mon- 
ticellean philosopher having already spread over Europe, his hospi- 
table seat was made the resort of scientific adventurers, and of dig- 
nified travellers, from many parts of that continent 



*Sce Travels of Duke de La Rochefoucault Liancourt, in America ; also, the 
Travels of Marquis de Chastellux. 

20 



222 LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

It may not be unsatisfactory to the reader, to have a picture of 
the Patriot in his hermitage, as he appeared to the celebrated 
French traveller, General Cliastellux : " Let me describe to you 
a man, not yet forty, tall, and with a mild and pleasing counte- 
nance, but whose mind and understanding are ample substitutes 
for every exterior grace — An American, who, without ever having 
quitted his own country, is at once a musician, skilled in drawing, 
a geometrician, an astronomer, a natural philosopher, legislator, and 
statesman — ^A senator of America, who sat for two years in that fa- 
mous Congress, which brought about the Revolution ; and which 
is never mentioned without respect, though unhappily not without 
regret — A Governor of Virginia, who filled this difficult station dur- 
ing the invasions of Arnold, of Phillips, and of Cornwallis — A phi- 
losopher, in voluntary retirement from the world and public busi- 
ness, because he loves the world inasmuch only, as he can flatter 
himself with being useful to mankind ; and the minds of his coun- 
trymen are not yet in a condition either to bear the light, or to suf- 
fer contradiction — A mild and amiable wife, charming children, 
of whose education he himself takes charge, a house to embellish, 
great provisions, and the arts and sciences to cultivate ;— these are 
what remain to Mr. Jefferson, after having played a principal char- 
acter on the theatre of the new world, and which he preferred to 
the honorable commission of Minister Plenipotentiary in Europe." 
In the autumn of '82, assurances having been received from the 
British government, that a general peace would be concluded in 
the ensuing winter or spring. Congress renewed the appointment 
of their Plenipotentiaries for that purpose. A great and afflicting 
change had, at this time, taken place in the domestic relations of 
Mr. Jefferson ; and the reasons which before operated imperatively 
against his acceptance of the mission, were suddenly superseded 
by others, as imperatively urging his absence from the seat of his 
dearest and most hallowed ties. The appointment was made on 
the 13th of November. " I had, two months before that," says he. 
" lost the cherished companion of my life, in whose affections, una- 
bated on both sides, I had lived the last ten years, in unchequered 
happiness." With the public interests, theiefore, the state cf his 
mind concurred in recommending the change of scene proposed : 
and he accepted the appointment. 



OP THOMAS JEFFERSON. 223 

He left Monticello on the 19th of December, '82, for Philadel- 
phia, where he arrived on the 27th. The Minister of France, Lu- 
zerne, offered him a passage in the frigate Romulus, which he 
accepted ; but she was then l,ying a few miles below Baltimore, 
blockaded by ice. No other conveyance being available, he re- 
mained in Philadelphia a month. On his arrival, Congress had 
passed an order offering him free access to the archives of the gov- 
ernment ; and he improved the leisure interval by a constant and 
daily attendance at the office of State, examining the public papers, 
with a view to possess himself thoroughly of the state of our for- 
eign affairs. He then proceeded to Baltimore, to await the libera- 
tion of the French frigate from the ice. After being detained 
there nearly a month longer, information was received, that a pro- 
visional Treaty of Peace had been signed by 'those of the Com- 
missioners* who were on the spot, on the 3d of September, '82 ; 
which treaty was to become absolute, on the conclusion of peace 
between France and Great Britain, Considering the object of his 
mission to Europe as now substantially accomplished, he repaired 
immediately to Philadelphia, to take the orders of Congress ; and 
was excused by them from further proceeding. He therefore re- 
turned home, where he arrived on the 15th of May, '83. 

The appointment and re-appointment of Mr. JefTerson on the 
distinguished embassy, which resulted in the negotiation of the 
definitive Treaty of Peace with Great Britain, though but a fair 
tribute to his extraordinary revolutionary services, have never been 
associated in history, with that important event. The circumstan- 
ces above detailed, alone prevented the addition of his signature to 
the Treaty, which would necessarily have given the same honorable 
notoriety to his connection witli the transaction, as is attached to his 
associate Commissioners. 

* John Adams, Dr. Franklin, John Jay, and Henry Laurens, 



224 LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS^ 



CHAPTER VIIL 

On the 6th of June, 1783, Mr. Jefferson, whose transcendent 
capabilities were never overlooked, though sometimes, unhappily, 
luiobtainable, was re-elected by the Legislature, to his ancient and 
well adapted station of Delegate to Congress, His appointment 
was to take effect on the 1st of November ensuing, when the term 
of the existing delegation would have expired. He left home on 
the 16th of October, arrived at Trenton, where Congress was sit- 
ting, on the 3d of November, and took his seat on the 4th ; on 
which day Congress adjourned, to meet at Annapolis on the 26th. 
The re-appearance, in the halls of the National Legislature, of 
the renowned Author of the Declaration of Independence, after an 
absence of seven years, during which the momentous principles of 
that Declaration had been solemnly contested and substantiated, 
before the sovereign tribunal of nations, must have impressed even 
that dignified Assembly with awe. How proudly must he have 
felt in looking round upon those, if any such were there, who had 
treated the question of Independence as idle chimera, and incessant- 
ly beleaguered the cause with sinister auguries of the result ? And 
with what deep exultation must he have met and grasped the 
hand of those, who had breasted with him the difficulties which 
hung on them so heavily, ' whose vote,' as he once proudly said, 
* had been his vote on every pubhc question, and whose principles 
had been the standard of whatever was free or fearless'? The 
praises and congratulations which were mutually interchanged, on 
this occasion, were enthusiastic, overflowing ; royalists and repub- 
licans kindled in the competition of public and private felicitation ; 
and the scene altogether, presented a tont ensemble^ not unworthy 
the conclusion of the long and agonizing drama, the result of which 
had verified the hopes of the most sanguine votary of the rights of 
man. 

Congress convened at Annapohs on the 26th of Noveml^er, agree- 
ably to adjournment ; iDut the pressure of the public afiairs having 
relaxed, the members had become proportionally remiss in their 
attendance, insomuch, that a majority of the States necessary by 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 225^ 

the Confederation to constitute a quorum, even for minor business, 
did not assemble until the 13th of December. 

On the 19th of the same month, the great conflict being over, 
and our National Independence acknowledged by Great Britain, 
the illustrious Generalissimo of the American army, requested per- 
mission of Congress to resign his honorable commission; and, 
with the deference ever paid by him to the civil authority, desired 
to kiiow their pleasure, in what manner the grateful duty should. 
be performed. 

To give aia eclat and dignity to the transaction, analogous to the 
importance of the event, they decreed, that the commission should 
be delivered up at a Public Audience, on the 23d of December,, 
at twelve o'clock ; and suitable arrangements were ordered, for 
making of the occasion, a grand and impressive republican pa- 
geant. The character sustained by Mr. Jefferson in this affecting 
scene, will justify a general description of the circumstances. 

When the horn- arrived for the performance of the interesting 
ceremony, the galleries were overloaded with spectators ; and many 
distinguished individuals, among whom were the executive and 
legislative characters of the States, several General Officers, and the 
Consul General of France, were admitted on the floor of Congress. 
The spectacle about to be exhibited, was calculated to awake the 
proudest recollections, and excite the most sublime emotions that 
ever animated the human soul. From the first moment of peace, 
the public mind had been fixed intently upon General Washington, 
to know what he would do ; he stood on the pinnacle of military 
fame and power ; but his ambition was satisfied, for the liberties of 
his country had been gained ; and his admiring fellow citizens 
were now assembled to witness the execution of a purpose, deliber- 
ately and warmly embraced, of leaving to the world a great and 
solemn example of moderation. 

The representatives of the sovereign people of the Union, remain- 
ed seated and covered ; the spectators, standing and uncovered. 
The General was introduced by the Secretary, and conducted to a 
chair near the President of Congress. After a proper interval, si- 
lence was commanded, and a short pause ensued. The President, 
General Mifflin, then rose and informed him that the United States 
in Congress assembled, were prepared to receive his communica- 
tions. Washington rose, and with a native dignity, equalled only 

20* 



226 LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

by the grandeur of the occasion, deUvered his affectionate addresj? 
and valedictory. 

Having then advanced to the Chair, and dehvered his commis- 
sioii to the President, he returned to his place, and received stand 
lug the following answer of the President, in the name of Con- 
gress. This interesting paper was prepared by Mr. Jefferson ! 

" Sir, — The United States in Congress assembled, receive witli 
emotions too affecting for utterance, the solemn resignation of the 
authorities under which you have led their troops with success 
through a perilous and douVitful war. Called upon by your coun- 
try to defend its invaded rights, you accepted the sacred charge, \)e- 
fore it had formed alliances, and whilst it was without funds or a 
government to support you. You have conducted the great milita- 
ry contest with wisdom and fortitude, invarialjly regarding the rights 
of the civil power through all disasters and changes. You liave, by 
the love and confidence of your fellow-citizens, enabled them to 
display their martial genius, and transmit their fame to posterity. 
You have persevered, till these United States, aided by a magnan- 
imous king and nation, have been en aWed, under a just Providence- 
to close the war in freedom, safety and independence : on which 
happy event, we sincerely join you in congratulations. 

" Having defended the standard of liberty in this new world : 
having taught a lesson useful to those who inflict, and to those who. 
feel oppression, you retire from the great theatre of action, with the 
blessings of your fellow citizens — but the glory of 3'our virtues will 
not terminate with yoiu military command, it v. ill continue to ani- 
mate remotest ages. 

''We feel with you our obhgations to the army in general, and 
will particidariy cliarge ourselves with the interests of those confi- 
dential officers, who have attended your person to this affecting mo- 
ment. 

" We join you in commending the interests of our dearest coun- 
try to the protection of Almighty God, beseeching him to dispose the 
hearts and minds of its citizens, to improve the opportunity afforded 
them, of becoming a happy and respectable nation. And for you 
we address to Him our earnest prayers, that a life so Ijeloved, may 
be fostered with all his care ; that your days may he happy as they 
have been illustrious ; and that he will finally give you that reward 
Vvdiich this world cannot give." 

On the same day, December 23d, measures were taken for ratify- 
ing the definitive Treaty of Peace, which had been signed at Paris 
on the 3d of September, 1783, and recehed here in November fol- 
lowing. The Treaty, with the joint letter of the American Pleni- 
potentiaries, was referred to a committee, ofwhicliMr. Jefferson was 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 227 

* 

chairman, to consider and report thereon. The necessary House 
not being present, the committee were directed to address letters to 
the Governors of the ahsent States, stating the receipt of the defin- 
itive Treaty ; that seven States only were in attendance, while 
nine were essential to its ratitication ; and urging them to press on 
their Delegates the necessity of an immediate attendance. 

Meanwhile, the House being restless under the delay, the opinion 
was advanced by several members, that seven States were com- 
petent to confirm treaties ; and the motion was accordingly 
made for an immediate ratification. Mr. Jefferson adhered to the 
strict letter of the Confederation, against the constructive opinion, 
and opposed the motion. It was debated with considerable warmth, 
on the 2Gth and 27th. No traces of the proceedings, however, ap- 
pear in the journals of Congress. It being made palpable, in the 
course of the debates, that the proposition could not be sustained, it 
was decided to make no entry at all. Massachusetts alone would 
have voted for it ; Rhode Island, Pennsylvania and Virginia against 
it ; Delaware, Maryland and North Carolina would have been di- 
vided. 

In embodying his recollections of these transactions, in 1821, Mr. 
Jefferson improved the occasion, to record a severe but merited cen- 
sure on the general character and conduct of our congressional bod- 
ies. It certainly deserves the attention of all those who are entrust- 
ed with the exercise of the elective franchise, in this happy Republic. 

"Our body w^as little numerous, but very contentious. Day after 
day was wasted on the most unimportant questions. A member^ 
one of those afflicted with the morbid rage of debate, of an ardent 
mind; prompt imagination, and copious flow of words, who heard 
with impatience any logic which was not his own, sitting near mc 
on some occasion of a trifling but wordy debate, asked me how I 
could sit in silence, hearing so much false reasoning, which a word 
should refute ? I ol^served to him, that to refute indeed was easy. 
l)ut to silence impossible ; that in measures brought forward by my- 
self, I took the laboring oar, as was incmnbent on me ; but that in 
general, I was willuig to listen ; that if every sound argument or 
objection was used by some one or other of the numerous debaters, 
it was enough ; if not, I thought it sufhcient to suggest the omission, 
without going into a repetition of what had been aheady said by 
others : that this was a waste and abuse of the time and patience 
of the House, which could not be justified. And I believe, that if 
the members of deliberate bodies were to observe this course general- 
ly, they would do in a day, what takes them a week ; and it is 



228 LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

really more questionable, than may at first be thought, whether 
Bonaparte's duDib legislature, which said nothing, and did much, 
may not be preferable to one which talks much, and does nothing. 
i served with General Washington in the Legislature of Virginia, 
before the Revolution, and, dining it, with Dr. Franivlin in Con- 
gress. I never heard either of them speak ten minutes at a time, 
nor to any but the main point, which was to decide the question. 
They laid their shoulders to the great points, knowing that the 
little ones would follow of themselves. If the present Congress errs 
in too much talking, how can it be otherwise, in a body to which 
the people send one hundred and fifty lawyers, whose trade it is, to 
(luestion every thing, yield nothing, and talk jjy the hour ? That 
one hundred and fifty lawyers should do business together, ought 
not to be expected." 

Those who thought seven States competent to the ratification, 
being very uneasy under the loss of their motion, Mr. Jefferson pro- 
posed, on the 3d of January, to meet them on the middle ground ; 
and accordingly moved a resolution, which premised, that there were 
but seven States present, who were imanimous for the ratifica- 
tion, but differed in opinion on the question of competency ; that 
those, hov/ever, in the negative, were unwilUng that any pov,'ers 
which it might be supposed they possessed, should remain unexer- 
cised for the restoration of peace, provided it could be done, saving 
their good faith, and without importing any opinion of Congress, 
that seven States w^ere competent ; and resolving, that the treaty 
be ratified so far as they had power ; that it should be transmitted to 
our Ministers, with instructions to keep it uncomraunicated ; to en- 
deavor to obtain three months longer for exchange of ratifications ; 
that they should be informed, that so soon as nine States shall be 
present, a ratification by nine shall be sent them ; if this should get 
to them before the ultimate point of time for exchange, they were 
to use it, and not the other; if not, they were to offer the act of the 
seven States in exchange, informing them the treaty had come to 
hand v/hile Congress was not in session, that but seven States were 
as yet assembled, and these had unanimously concurred in the rati- 
fication. This resolution was debated on the 3d and 4th of Janua- 
ry ; and on the 5th, the question being carried, the House directed 
the President to write to our Ministers accordingly. 

On the 14th of January, Delegates from Connecticut and South 
Carolina having arrived, the necessary complement of States was 
in attendance ; and on report of Mr. Jefferson, in behalf of the com- 



OP THOMAS JEFFRSON. 229 

mittee, the definitive Treaty of Peace between the United States and 
Great Britain, was solemnly ratified and confirmed, without a dis- 
senting voice. Thus was consummated, in the calm of reason, a 
work, which, through eight consecutive years of blood and violence, 
had chained the attention of the universe, — a work, which resulted 
in the establishment of an Independent Empire, upon republican 
principles ; and it was certainly no more than a matter of strict 
right, that the individual, who had taken the lead in originating 
those principles, and ' declaring' them to the world, should have as- 
signed to him the first place in ratifying the assent of the principal 
Powers of Europe, to their justness and validity. 

But the act, by which Mr. Jefierson chiefly distinguished himself, 
in his second congressional course, was his establishment of a Mon- 
ey Unit, and a uniform system of currency, for the United States. 
The interesting fact is not generally known to the people of this 
country, that Mr. Jefierson was the father of their present admirable 
system of Coinage and Currency. In the volumes and volumes 
which have been written on this extraordinary man, no allusion to 
the circumstance has ever appeared ; and yet, it is one of the noblest 
commentaries upon the versatility of his intellectual powers. ' The 
historical circumstances attending the preparation and final adop- 
tion of his scheme are of some curiosity, as showing the disparity of 
views which prevailed on the subject. 

Early in January, 1782, Congress had turned their attention to 
the variety and discordancy of monies current in the several States ; 
and had directed their financier, Robert Morris, to report to them a 
table of the difierent currencies, and of the rates at which foreign coins 
should be received at the treasury. That ofiScer, or rather his assist- 
ant, Gouvcrneur Morris, answered them, the same month, in an able 
and elaborate statement of the denominations of money cuvrent in 
the several States, and of the comparative value of the foreign coins 
chiefly in circulation among us. He went also into the considera- 
tion of the necessity of estabhshing a fixed standard of value with us, 
and of adopting a Money Unit. He proposed for that unit, such 
a fraction of pure silver as would be a common measure of the pen- 
ny of every State, without leaving a fraction. This common divis- 
ion he found to be T4V o of a dollar, or x^V of a crown sterling. The 
value of a dollar, therefore, was to be expressed by 1440 units, and 
of a crown by 1600 ; each unit containing a quarter of a grain of 



S30 LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

fine silver. The following year, 1783, Congress again turned their 
attention to the subject, and tlie Financier, by a letter of April 30, 
further explained his idea, and urged the unit he had proposed ; 
but nothing more vv'as done on it, until the early part of the ensuing 
year, '84, when, Mr. Jefferson having become a member, the sub- 
ject was referred to a committee, of which he was made chairman. 

"The general views of the Financier, were sound," says he, " and 
the principle was ingenious, on which he proposed to found his unit ; 
but it was too minute for ordinary use, too laborious for computation, 
either by head or in figures. The price of a loaf of bread, g'^ of a dol- 
lar, would be 72 units. A pound of butter, ^ of a dollar, 288 units. 
A horse or bullock, of eighty dollars' value, Avould require a nota- 
tion of six figures, to wit, 115,200, and the public debt, suppose of 
eighty millions, would require twelve figures, to wit, 115,200,000,000 
units. Such a system of money arithmetic would be entirely un- 
manageable for the common piu'poses of society. I proposed, there- 
fore, instead of this, to adopt the Dollar as our unit of account and 
payment, and that its divisions and subdivisions should be in the 
decimal ratio. I wrote some notes on the subject, which I submit- 
ted to the consideration of the Financier. I received his answer 
and adherance to his general system, only agreeing to take for his 
luiit one hundred of those he first proposed, so that a dollar should 
be 14yVp, and a crown 16 units. I replied to this, and printed my 
notes and reply on a flying sheet, which I put into the hands of the 
members of Congress for consideration, and the committee agreed 
to report on my principle. This was adopted the ensuing year, 
and is the system which now prevails. 

The money system recommended by Mr. Jefferson, and adopted 
by Congress in 1785, has almost entirely superseded the various and 
jjerplexing currencies, which formerly prevailed in the different 
States, and established a uniformity of computation among them, 
harmonizing, in some degree, with their unity as a nation. For 
soundness and simplicity, easy computation, and facility of intro- 
duction among the people, it is probably unequalled by any sys- 
tejn now in use, in any other nation on the globe. A tolerable 
estimate of its advantages over the currencies of other nations, may 
be formed on an examination of the views of the Author, as draft- 
ed by himself at the time, and submitted to the consideration of the 
eominittee.* 

As might be expected, the return to the National Councils, of so 

» See Appendi.v, Note B. 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 231 

<listinguished a character as Mr. Jefferson, drew upon him an unus- 
wal proportion of business of the first magnitude. The journals of 
ihe House place him continually in the foreground of the concen- 
ti'ated wisdom of the nation. He was on all the committees, to 
whom concerns of the highest moment were entrusted ; and was 
twice, in one month, elected chairman of Congress, during the ab- 
sence, from indisposition, of the President. 

He was appointed chairman of a grand committee to revise the 
institution of the Treasury Department, and report such alterations 
as they should deem proper. The lousiness of this committee was 
emphatically to reduce order out of chaos. The finances of the 
country were in a most deplorable condition ; no adequate system 
had been devised for meeting the constant and increasing requisi- 
tions upon the treasury ; no compulsory power existing in Congress, 
over the States, many of them, being dissatisfied with their quotas, 
refused to contrit)ute altogether, and none appeared to have the 
means at command for satisfying the demands made upon them. 
The peace and harmony of the Union were manifestly in danger. 
Mr. Jefferson entered upon the arduous trust, with great zeal and 
fidehty, and draughted an able report on the subject, in the form of 
a Circular Letter to the supreme Executive of the several States : 
which report was unanimously adopted. He likewise reported from 
the same committee, the draught of an ordinance for erecting the 
department of finance into commission, under the title of ' The 
Board of Treasury,' which was also adopted. 

He was appointed chairman of a grand committee to prepare and 
report to Congress, the arrears of interest on the National Debt, 
with the interest and expenses of the current year ; and to adjust 
an equitable apportionment of the whole demand, among the sev- 
eral States. He drew the report of the committee. It was an elab- 
orate performance, embracing a full and comprehensive review of 
the various debts of the Union, the interest due thereon, with the 
expenses of the current year, and exhibiting by a table annexed, 
an apportionment of the necessary requisitions upon the several 
States, for defraying the amount. The report was accepted and 
passed. 

He was appointed chairman of a committee to devise and report 
a plan of government for the Western Territories. He drew tlie 
prdinance, on a principle analogous to the State governments, repor- 



232 LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

ted it to the House, where, after going through the ordinary course, 
it was adopted with few alterations. He improved the occasion to 
testify, once more, his abhorrence of Slavery, by introducing into 
his plan, the following provision : " That after the year 1800 of 
the Christian era, there shall be neither slavery nor involuntary 
servitude in any of the States, otherwise than in punishment of 
crimes, whereof tlie party shall have been duly convicted to have 
been personally guilty." But the clause was stricken out by Con- 
gress, as well as another, which provided that no person should be 
admitted a citizen, who held any hereditary title. 

He was appointed on a conmiittee of retrenchment, to consider 
and report what reductions might he made in the civil list. On 
the report of this committee, such a reduction was ordered, by sup- 
pressing unnecessary offices, and diminishing the salaries of others, 
as produced an annual saving to the United States, of 24,000 dollars. 
He was made chairman of a committee to settle the mode of 
locating and disposing lands in the Western Territory. He pre- 
pared the report of the committee, which was adopted. It estab- 
lished the mode of locating and disposing the vacant lands of the 
United States, which has hitherto been pusued, with httle variation. 
By the Confederation, exclusive power over the regulation of 
commerce, even by treaty, was not given to Congress; but the 
right was reserved to the State legislatures, of imposing such duties 
on foreigners, as their own people were subjected to, and of prohibit- 
ing the exportation and importation of any species of goods, within 
their respective ports. The inconveniences of this arrangement 
were speedily felt, to an alarming degree. Great Britain had al- 
ready adopted regulations destructive of our commerce with her 
West India islands ; and unless the United States, in their federa- 
tive capacity, were invested with powers conipetent to the protection 
of their commerce, by countervailing regulations, it was obvious 
they could never command reciprocal advantages in trade ; without 
which their foreign connnerce must dechne, and eventually be an- 
nihilated. A committee was therefore appointed, of which TVIr. Jef- 
ferson was a member, to institute measures for transferring the prin- 
cipal jurisdiction of commerce, from the States to the National tribu- 
nal. They reported resolutions recommending the Legislatures of 
the several States, to invest the Federal Government, for the term 
of fifteen years, with the power to interdict from our ports the com- 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 



233 



Siiierce of any nation, with wliom the United States shall not have 
estabhshed treaties. The report was accepted, and the resokitions 
passed. 

All these important transactions, with many others, in which Mr. 
Jetierson had a leading agency, were accomplished during the win- 
ter and spring of 1784, the whole term of his second congressional 
service. 

During the same term, he submitted a proposition, vv^iich embia- 
ced a double object — to invigorate and economize the government. 
The permanent session of Congress, and the flagrant remissness of 
the members, had begun to be a subject of uneasiness through the 
country ; and even some of the Legislatures had recommended to 
them intermissions, and periodical sessions. But the government 
was not yet organized into separate Departments ; there was no dis- 
tinct Executive, nor had the Confederation made provision for a 
visible head of affairs, during vacations of Congi-ess. Such a head 
Avas necessary, however, to superintend the executive business, to 
receive and communicate with foreign Ministers and imtions, and 
to assemble Congress on sudden and extraordinary emergencies. 
Mr. Jefferson, therefore, proposed the appointment of an executive 
board, to consist of one member from each State, who should re- 
main in session during the recess of Congress, under the title of 
' Committee of the States.' The powers of this periodical substi- 
tute of Congress, were to embiace all the executive functions of the 
principal, which should not be specially reserved, but none of the 
legislative ; the concurrence of nine meml^ers should be required to 
determine all questions, except that of adjournment from day to 
day ; they should keep a journal of tlieir proceedings to be laid l3e- 
fore Congress, whom they should also be empowered to assemble, 
on any occurrence during the recess, in which the peace or happi- 
ness of the United States might be involved. 

The proposition was adopted, and a Committee of the States ap- 
pointed. On the adjournment of Congress, in June following, they 
entered upon their duties, but in the course of two months, quarrel- 
led among themselves, divided into two parties, abandoned their 
post, and left the government without any visible head, until the 
next meeting of Congress. The scheme w^as found to be an im- 
practicable one, though it was the be^t within the authority of Con- 
gress, at that time, to adopt. And, on the whole, it was a happy 
21 



234 LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

circumstance to our Republic, that tlie theory proved as impractica- 
ble as it did ; for it developed, in a clear light, the palpable defect of 
the Confederation, in not having provided for a separation of the 
legislative, executive, and judiciary functions: and this defect, to- 
gether with the want of ^adequate powers in the General Govern- 
ment, to collect their contributions, and to regulate commerce, were 
the two great causes which led to the forniation and adoption of 
our present Constitution. 

Mr. Jefferson has left a brief reminiscence of his sentiments, and 
of an amusing interview Avith Dr. Franklin, on learning the sudden 
rupture and dispersion of the new Executive Chiefs. 

" We have since seen the same thing take place, in the Directory 
of France; and I believe it will for ever take place in any Execu- 
tive consisting of a pluraUty. Our plan, best, I believe, combines 
wisdom and practicability, by providing a plurality of councillors, 
but a single arbiter for ultimate decision. I was in France when 
we heard of this schism and separation of oar Committee, and, 
speaking with Dr. Franklin of this singidar disposition of men to 
quarrel, and divide into parties, he gave his sentiments, as usual, by 
way of apologue. He luentioned the Eddystone light-house, in the 
British channel, as being built on a rock, in the mid-channel, total- 
ly inaccessible in winter, from the boisterous character of that sea, 
in that season ; that, therefore, for the two keepers employed to keep 
up the lights, all provisions for the winter were necessarily carried to 
them in autumn, as they could never be visited again till the return 
of the milder season ; that, on the first practicable day in the spring, 
a boat put off to them with fresh supphes. The boatmen met at 
the door one of the keepers, and accosted him with a 'How goes it, 
friend?' 'Very well.' 'How is your companion?' ' I do not know.' 
' Don't know ?' ' Is not he here ?' ' I cant tell.' ' Have not you seen 
him to day ?' 'No.' 'When did you see him ?' ' Not since last fall.' 
' You have killed him ?' ' Not I, indeed.' They were about to lay 
hold of him, as having certainly murdered his companion ; but he 
desired them to go up stairs and examine for themselves. They 
went up, and there found the other keeper. They had quarrelled, 
it seems, soon after being left there, had divided into two parties, as- 
' signed the cares below to one, and those above to the other, and 
liad never spoken to, or seen, one another since. 

While in Congress, at Annapolis, Mr. Jefferson received an ur- 
gent letter from General Washington, requesting his opinions on 
the institution of the Cincinnati, and on the conduct most proper 
for him to pursue in relation to it. The origin of this institution 
was perfectly innocent ; but its anti-republican organization and 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 



235 



tendency soon excited a heavy solicitude in the breasts of the more 
sensitive guardians of liberty, which at length broke forth in accents 
of loud and extensive disapprobation. The idea was suggested by 
General Knox, and finally matured into a regular association of 
all the otBcers of the American ai my, to continue during their lives, 
and those of their eldest male posteiity, or in failure thereof, any col- 
lateral branches who might be judged worthy admission, with pow- 
er to incorporate, as honorary members for life, individuals of the 
respective States, distinguished for their patriotism and abilities. 
The laws of the association further provided for periodical meetings, 
general and particular, fixed contributions for such of the members 
as might be in distress, and a badge to be Avorn by them, and pre- 
sented, by a special envoy, to the French officers who had served in 
the United States, who were to be invited to consider themselves as 
belonging to the society ; at the head of which the Commander in 
Chief was unanimously designated to place his name. 

General W ashington saw with pain the uneasiness of the pubhc 
Diind under this institution, and appealed to Mr. Jefferson for his 
advice on the most eligible measures to be pursued, at the next 
meeting. The answer of Mr. Jefferson, as it probably decided the 
future destinies of this famous institution, is worthy of being pre- 
served. It is dated Annapolis, April 16, 1784. 

" I received your favor of April the 8th, by Colonel Harrison 
The subject of it is interesting, and, so far as you have stood con- 
nected with it, has been matter of anxiety to me ; because, what- 
ever may be the ultimate fate of the institution of the Cincinnati, 
as, in its course, it draws to it some degree of disapprobation, I have 
wished to see you standing on ground separated from it, that the 
character which will be handed to future ages, of the head of our 
Revolution, may, in no instance, be compromitted in subordinate 
altercations. The subject has been at the point of my pen in every 
letter I have written to you, but has been still restrained by the re- 
flection that you had among your friends more able counsellors, and, 
in yourself, one abler than them all. Your letter has now render- 
ed a duty what was before a desire, and I cannot better merit your 
confidence than by a full and free communication of facts and sen- 
timents, as far as they have come within my observation. When 
the army was about to be disbanded, and the officers to take final 
leave, perhaps never again to meet, it was natural for men who had 
accompanied each other through so many scenes of hardship, of 
difficulty and danger, who, in a variety of instances, must have been 
rendered mutually dear by those aids and good offices, to which 



23G LIFE, WRITINGS. AND OPINIONS 

their situations had given occasion, it was natural, I say, for these 
to seize with fondness any proposition wiiich promised to bring them 
together again, at certain and regular periods. And this, 1 take 
for granted, was the origin and object of this institution : and I have 
no suspicion that they foresaw, much less intended, those mischiefs 
which exist perhaps in the forebodings of politicians only. I doubt, 
however, whether in its execution, it would be found to answer the 
v.'ishes of those who framed it, and to foster those friendships it was 
intended to preserve. The members would be brought together at 
their annual assemblies no longer to encounter a cojinnon enemy, 
but to encounter one another in debate and sentiment. For some- 
thing, I suppose, is to be done at these meetings, and, however un- 
important, it will suffice to produce difference of opinion, contradic- 
tion, and irritation. The way to make friends quarrel is to put 
tliem in disputation under the public eye. An expeiience of near 
twenty years has taught me, that few friendships stand this test, 
and that public assemblies where every one is free to act and speak, 
are the most powerful looseners of the bands of private fricndsliip. 
I think, therefore, that this institution v/ould fail in its principal ol> 
ject, the perpetuation of the personal friendships contracted through 
the war. 

"The objections of those who are opposed to the institution shall 
be briefly sketched. You will readil}^ fill them up. They uige 
that it is against the Confederation— against the letter of some of our 
Constitutions — against the spirit of all of them : — that the foundation 
on which all these are built, is the natural equality of man, the de- 
nial of every pre-eminence but that annexed to legal office, and, par- 
ticularly, the denial of a pre-eminence by birth : that however, in 
their present dispositions, citizens might decline accepting honorary 
instalments into the order ; but a time may come, when a change 
of dispositions would render these flattering, when a well directed 
distribution of them might draw into the order all the men of talents, 
of office, and wealth ; and in this case, would probably procure an in- 
graftment into the government ; that in this, they will be supported 
by their foreign mem!>ers, and the viashes and influence of foreign 
courts ; that experience has shown that the hereditary brandies of 
modern governments are the patrons of privilege and prerogative, 
and not of the natural rights of the people, whose oppressors they 
generally are : that b.esides these evils, which are remote, others 
may take place more immediately ; that a distinction is kept up be- 
tween the civil and military, which it is for the happiness of both 
to o]>literate ; that when the members assemble they will be propos- 
ing to do something, and what that something may be, will depend 
on actual circumstances ; that being an organized body, under hab- 
its of subordination, the first obstruction to enterprise will ]3e already 
surmounted ; that the moderation and virtue of a single character 
liave probably prevented this Revolution from being closed as most 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 237 

Others have been, by a subversion of that hberty it was intended to 
estabUsh ; that he is not immortal, and liis successor, or some of his 
successors, may be led by false calculations into a less certain road to 
glory. 

"This, Sir, is as faithful an account of sentiments and facts as I 
am able to give you. You know the extent of the circle within 
which my observations are at present circumscribed, and can esti- 
mate how far, as forming a part of the general opinion, it may merit 
notice, or ought to influence your particular conduct. 

" It now remains to pay obedience to that part of your letter 
which requests sentiments on the most eligible measures to be pur- 
sued by the society, at their next meeting. I must be far from pre- 
tending to be a judge of what would, in fact, be the most eligible 
measures for tbe society. I can only give you the opinions of those 
with whom I have conversed, and who, as I have before observed, 
are unfriendly to it. They lead to these conclusions. 1. If the so- 
ciety proceed according to its institution, it will be better to make no 
application to Congress on that subject, or any other, in their associa- 
ted character. 2. If they should propose to modiiy it, so as to ren- 
der it unobjectionable, I think it would not be effected without such 
a modification as would amount almost to annihilation : for such 
would it be to part with its inheritability, its organization, and its 
assemblies. 3. If they shall be disposed to discontinue the whole, 
it would remain with them to determine whether they would choose 
it to be done by their own act only, or by a reference of the matter 
to Congress, which would infallibly produce a recommendation of 
total discontinuance. 

" You wiU be sensible, Sir, that these communications are with- 
out reserve. I supposed such to be your wish, and mean them but 
as materials, with such others ns you may collect, for your better 
judgment to v/ork on. I consider the whole matter as between our- 
selves alone, having determined to take no active part in this or any 
thing else, which may lead to altercation, or disturb that quiet and 
tranquiUity of mind, to which I consign the remaining portion of 
my life. I have been thrown back by events, on a stage where I 
had never more thought to appear. It is but for a time, however, 
and as a day laborer, free to withdraw, or be withdrawn at will. 
While I remain, I shall pursue in silence the path of right, but in 
eveiy situation, public or private, I shall be gratified by all occasions 
of rendering you service, and of convincing you there is no one, to 
whom your reputation and happiness are dearer than to, Sir, your 
most obedient and most humble servant." 

The sentiments of Mr. Jefferson on the subject of the Cincinnati, 
were the sentiments of a majority of the members of Congress ; 
and they soon animated the mass of the people. General Wash- 

21* 



238 LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

ington was oppressed with solicitude ; he weighed the considera- 
tions submitted to him, with intense dehberation ; and although 
concious of the purity of tlie motives in which the institution origin 
ated, he became sensible that it might produce political evils, whicli 
the warmth of those motives had disguised. But whether so or 
not, the fact that a majority of the people were opposed to it, was a 
sufficient motive with him, for desiring its immediate suppression. 
The first annual meeting was to be held in May ensuing, at Phil- 
adelphia ; it was now at hand ; and he went to it with the deter- 
mination to exert all his influence for its annihilation. He propos- 
f d the matter to his fellow officers, and urged it with all his powers. 
' It met witli an opposition,' says Mr. Jetferson, ' which was ob- 
served to cloud his face with an anxiety, that the most distressful 
scenes of the war had scarcely ever produced. The question of 
dissolution was canvassed for several days, and, at length, the or- 
der was on the point of receiving its annihilation, by the vote of a 
great majority of its members. At this moment, their envoy arriv- 
ed from France, charged with letters from the French officers^ 
accepting cordially the proposed badges of fellowship, with solicita- 
tions from others to be received into the order, and the recognition 
of their magnanimous sovereign. The prospect was now changed. 
The question assumed a new form. After an offer made by 
themselves, and accepted by their friends, im what words could 
they clothe a proposition to retract it, which would not covei- them- 
selves with the reproaches of levity and ingratitude ? which would 
not appear an insult to those whom they loved ? They found it 
necessary, therefore, to preserve so much of the institution, as would 
support the foreign branch ; but they obliterated every feature 
v.'hich was calculated to give offence to their own citizens ; thus 
sacrificing, on each hand, to their brave allies, and to their country.' 
The society was to retain its existence, its name, and its chari- 
table funds; these last, however, w^ere to be deposited with their 
respective Legislatures. The order w^as to be no longer hereditary ; 
and it was to be communicated to no new members. The general 
meetings, instead of annual, were to be triennial only. The eagle 
and ril)bon, indeed, were retained ; because they were willing they 
should be worn by their friends in a country where they would not 
be objects of offence ; but themselves never wore them. " They 
laid them up in their bureaus, with the medals of American Inde- 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON". 239 

pendence, with those of the trophies they had taken, and the battle:^* 
they had won." 

On the 7th of May, Congress resolved that a Minister Plenipo- 
tentiary should be appointed, in addition to Dr. Franklin and Mr. 
Adams, already in Europe, for negotiating treaties of commerce will i 
foreign nations ; and Mr. Jefferson was unanimously elected. 

Tlie charge confided to this distinguished Legation, comprehend- 
ed the origination and management of all our Foreign Relations ; 
the adjustment of which, upon a firm and equitable basis, was evi- 
dently an undertaking of uncommon magnitude, difficulty and deli- 
cacy. We had now become an independent nation, and, as such; 
it was incumbent upon us to assert, v/ith dignity, all those rights of 
fellowship with other nations, to which our separate and equal sta- 
tion gave us an equal title ; and to receive, with suitable acknowl- 
edgements, as many favors, as any of them were disposed to grant, 
it was the great object of Congress, in the appointment of these 
Ambassadors, to get our commerce established with every nation, 
on a footing as favorable as that of any other government ; and, 
for this purpose, they were directed to propose to each nation a dis- 
tinct treaty of commerce. The acceptance, too, of such treaties, 
would amount to an acknowledgement, by each, of our independ- 
ence, and of our reception into the fraternity of nations ; "which," 
says Mr. Jefferson, "although as possessing our station of right, and 
in fact, we would not condescend to ask, v.^e were not unwilling to 
furnish opportunities for receiving their friendly salutations and wel- 
come." With France, the United Netherlands and Sweden, the 
United States already had commercial treaties ; but commissions 
were given for those countries also, should any amendments be 
thought necessary. The other Powers, to which treaties were to 
be proposed, were England, Hamburg, Saxony, Prussia, Denmark, 
Russia, Austria, Venice, Rome, Naples, Tuscany, Sardinia, Genoa, 
Spain, Portugal, the Porte, Algiers, Tripoh, Tunis, and Morocco. 



2-40 LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 



CHAPTER IX. 



Mr. Jefferson accepted the honorable commission of Ambassa- 
dor, and bid a final adieu to Congress, on the 11th of May, '84, 
instead of returning to Monticello, the scene of his recent and dis- 
tressing bereavement, he went directly to Philadelphia, took with 
him his eldest daughter, then in that city, and proceeded thence to 
Boston, in quest of a passage. This was the only occasion ou 
which Mr. Jefferson ever visited New England ; and while pursu- 
ing his journey, he made a point of stopping at the principal towns 
on the seaboard, to inform himself of the state of commerce in each 
State. With the same view, he extended his route into New Hamp- 
shire, and returned to Boston. He sailed thence, on the 5th of 
July, in the merchant ship Ceres, bound to Cowes, wdiere he arrived, 
after a pleasant voyage, on the 26th. He was detained there a few 
days, by the indisposition of his daughter, embarked for Havre ou 
the 30th, and arrived at Paris on the 6th of August. He called 
immediately on Dr. Franklin, at Passy, communicated to him 
their charge and instructions ; and they wrote to Mr. Adams, then 
at the Hague, to join thein at Paris. 

The instructions given by Congress to the first Plenipotentiaries 
of Independent America, were a novelty in the history of interna- 
tional transactions ; and much curiosity was manifested by the di- 
plomatic corps of Euiope, resident at the court of Versailles, to know 
the author of them. These instructions contemplated the introduc- 
tion of numerous and fundamental reformations in the reciprocal 
relations of neutrals and belligerents, which, had the propositions of 
our Ministers been embraced by the principal powers of Europe, 
would have effected a series of the most substantial and desirable 
improvements in the international code of mankind. The princi- 
pal reformations intended, w^ere, a provision exempting from cap- 
ture, by the public ot private armed ships of either belligerent, when 
at war, all merchant vessels and their cargoes, employed merely in 
carrying on the commerce between nations — or, in other words, the 
abolition of privateering; a provision against the molestation of 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSOX. 



241 



iisliermeu, husbandmen, citizens unarnied. and following their oc- 
cuj)ations in unfortified places : for the humane treatment of prison- 
ers of war ; for the abolition of contraband ©f war, which exposes 
merchant vessels to such ruinous detentions and abuses ; and for 
the recognition of the principle of " free bottoms, free goods." 

Such were the distinguishing features of these unique in^^truc- 
lions ; and the interesting question of their authorship has never 
been settled until since the publication of Mr. Jefierson's Private 
Correspondence. In a letter of his, written but a short time l^efore 
his death, to John Q,. Adams, then President of the United States, 
the whole histoi'y of the transaction is conciseh' stated, in ansv.'cr 
to a special and friendly enquiry on the subject. With a modesty 
only equalled by his uniform silence theretofore, upon the point, he 
ascribes to Dr. Franklin, the merit of having suggested the princi- 
pal innovations, meditated by these instructions. 

" I am thankful for the very interesting message and documents 
of which you liave been so kind as to send me a copy, and will 
state my recollections as to the particular passage of the message 
to which you ask my attention. On the conclusion of peace. Con- 
gress, sensible of their right to assume independence, v.'ould not 
condescend to as!c its acknowledgment from other nations, yet 
were willing, by some of the ordinary international transactions, to 
receive what would inijily that acknowledgement. They appointed 
commissioners, therefore, to propose treaties of commerce to the 
principal nations of Europe. I was then a member of Congress, 
was of the committee appointed to prepare instructions for the com- 
missioners, vras, as you suppose, the drauglitsman of those actually 
agreed to, and was joined with your father and Doctor Franklin, 
to carry them into execution. But the stipulations making part of 
these instructions, which respected privateering, l)lockades, contra- 
band, and freedom of the fisheries, were not original conceptions 
of mine. They had before been suggested ])y Doctor Franklin, in 
some of his papers in possession of the public, and had, I think, 
been recommended in some letter of his to Congress. I happen 
only to have been the inserter of them in the first pul)lic act which 
gave the formal sanction of a public authority." * * 

Agreeably to their request, Mr. Adams soon joined his colleagues 
of the Legation, at Paris ; and their first employment was, to pre- 
pare a general form of treaty, based upon the broad principles of 
their instructions, to be proposed to each nation, without discrimina- 
tion, but without ixrging it upon any. In the conference with the 
Count de Vergennes, with whose nation the United States already 



242 LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

had a treaty, it was mutually agreed to leave to legislative regula- 
tion, on both sides, such moditications of our commercial intercourse 
as would voluntarily flow from amicable dispositions. They next 
sounded the Ministers of the several European nations, assembled 
at the court of Versailles, on the dispositions of their respective gov- 
ernments towards mutual commerce, and the expediency of encour- 
aging it by the protection of a treaty. The final success of theii' 
propositions to the various Powers, during a twelve month term of 
joint diplomatic attendance in Europe, is very pleasantly and com- 
prehensively stated by Mr. Jefferson himself. 

''Old Frederick, of Prussia, met us cordially, and without hesita- 
tion, and, appointing the Baron de Thulemeyer, his minister at the 
Hague, to negotiate with us, we communicated to him our ProjeL 
which, with little alteration by the King, was soon concluded. 
Denmark and Tuscany entered also into negotiations v/ith us. 
Other Powers appearing indifierent, we did not think it proper to 
j>ress them. They seemed, in fact, to know little about us, but as 
rebels, who had been successful in throwing ofl' the yoke of the 
mother country. They were ignorant of our commerce, which had 
been always monopolized by England, and of the exchange of ar- 
ticles it might offer advantageously to both parties. They were 
inclined, therefore, to stand aloof, until they could see better what 
relations might be usefully instituted with us. The negotiations, 
therefore, begun with Denmark and Tuscany, Ave ])rotracted de- 
signedly, until our powers had expired ; and abstained from making 
new propositions to others having no colonies ; because our com- 
merce being an exchange of raw for wrought materials, is a com- 
jKJtent price for admission into the colonies of those possessing them ; 
but were we to give it, without price, to others, all would claim it, 
without price, on the ground of g-entis amicisswia." 

Such was the insufferable affectation of reserve and hauteur, 
with which the Ambassadors of independent America were treated, 
by the sapient representatives of the governments of the ancient 
world. How ridiculous must their short sighted diplomacy appear, 
at the present day, in the face of all Europe ! It is true, the Uni- 
ted States had just emerged fiom a subordinate condition ; but a 
little knowledge of the situation and resources, the people, and in- 
stitutions of America, would have apprised them of the rank she 
was destined to hold in the scale of empire, and of the nature of 
these. relations which it was their interest to have estabhshed with 
lier. By assuming an air of coyness and indifference, they proba- 
bly imagined they could inveigle our Ministers into terms more ad- 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 243 

vautageous to themselves, than they were in the habit of instituting 
with the old countries, and more experienced agents. But they 
were met by the untutored negotiators of republican America, with 
an equal indifference, as just and honorable as theirs was falla- 
cious and disreputable, springing as it did, from a sense of the real 
value of our commerce, and a determination not to exchange it, in 
any case, without an adequate equivalent. As soon as they became 
sensible, therefore, that they could do nothing with the greater 
Powers, who alone could offer a competent exchange for our com- 
merce, they prudently resolved not to hamper our country with en- 
gagements to those of less significance ; and accordingly suffered 
their commission to expire without closing any other negotiation 
than that with the King of Prussia. 

Thus, through the stupidity and avarice of European govern- 
ments, was lost to the world, a precious opportunity of reforming 
fundamentally its international code, by the introduction of those 
wise and beneficent principles, which emanated from the mind of a 
Jefferson and a Franklin, and which have been the admiration ol 
all nations, in all succeeding times.* " Had these governments," 
says Mr. Jefferson, " been then apprised of the 'station we should 
so soon occupy among nations, all, I believe, would have met us 
promptly and with frankness. These principles would then have 
been established with all, and from being the conventional law with 
us alone, would have slid into their engagements with one another, 
and become general. They have not yet got into written history ; 
but their adoption by our southern brethren, will bring them into 
observance, and make them, what they should be, a part of the law 
of the world, and of the reformation of principles for which they 
they will be indebted to us." 

On the 10th of March, 1785, Mr. Jefferson received the unan- 
imous appointment of Minister Plerjipotentiary at the Court of 



* In allusion to these new principles of international policy, the Edinburgh 
Review, whose high toryism on all points, makes it the best witness in the case, 
is constrained to make a respectable acknowledgment. In an article of the July 
No. 1830, reviewing Jefferson's Works, it says : — 

" The foreign policy of the United States is to us a point of more immediate, 
as, indeed, it some day must become a point of incalculable importance. It in- 
volves bold innovations on the principles and practice of the Law of Nations, 
as hitherto understood and established. Some of these innovations appear to 
be improvements for the interest of humanity ; others, to be only cncroach- 
jnents and pretexts for the interest of America." 



244 LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

France, as successor to Dr. Franklin, who had obtained leave to 
return to America. He was re-elected to the same dignified sta- 
tion in October, ^S7, on the expiration of his first term, and contin- 
ued to represent the United States at that polite Court, until Octo- 
ber, 1789, when he was permitted to return to his native country. 

Mr. Adams was about the same time appointed Minister Plenipo- 
tentiary to England, and left Paris for London, in June, '85. 

Mr. Jefi'erson accepted the appointment, with a native diffidence, 
heightened by a sense of the extraordinary merits of his predecessor, 
and of the exalted estimation in Avliich they had established him 
with the French nation. In his letter of acceptance, to John Jay, 
Secretary of Foreign Affairs, he conveys his acknovvdedgements, 
in the following terms. 

'' I beg permission through you, Sir, to testify to Congress my 
gratitude for this new mark of their favor, and my assurances of 
endeavoring to merit it by a faithful attention to the discharge of 
the duties annexed to it. Fervent zeal is all which I can be sure of 
carrying into your service ; and where I fail through a want of those 
powers which nature and circumstances deny me, I shall rely on 
their indulgence, and much also on that candor with which your 
goodness will present my proceedings to their eye. The kind 
terms in which you are pleased to notify this honor to me, require 
my sincere thanks." 

Mr. Jefferson's reception at the splendid Court of Versailles, ^s res- 
ident Ambassador of America, and his introduction into the brilliant 
circles of Paris, were of the most flattering character. At first, he 
was universally pointed to, and appreciated only, as the successor of 
the admired, the beloved, the venerated Frankhn ; but in a short 
time, his own estimable qualities became known, and established 
him in the affections of the nation, with a firmness and fervor, 
which rivaled the reputation of his predecessor. He was every 
where, and on all occasions, greeted with a welcome, which har- 
monized nobly with the trite pre-eminence of that generous people, in 
all the social dispositions of the heart, and with their cordial attach- 
ments, in particular, to the freemen and freedom of the United 
States. With a mind constituted, as was Mr. Jefferson's, so much 
in unison with the sensibility, frankness and enthusiasm of the 
French character, it is not wonderful, that the attentions which 
were showered upon him, the science of their literary men, the 
warmth of their general philanthropy, and the devoteduess of their 



OP THOMAS JEFFERSON. 245 

delect friendships, made an impression upon hini, which he caniec!, 
ill all its freshness, to his grave. 

On the retirement of Dr. Franklin from the diplomatic field, the 
duties of the joint commission for forming commercial treaties in 
Europe, devolved on Mr. Jefferson and Mr. Adams; and their sep- 
iiiate location, added to their insuperable repugnance to pressing the 
subject upon the European governments, had almost extinguished 
tile idea of further operations. But in February, 1 786, Mr. Jeffer- 
son received, by express, a letter from his colleague irt London, urg- 
ing his immediate attendance at that Court, stating as a reason, that 
lie tliought he discovered there some symptoms of a more favorable 
disposition towards the United States. Col. Smith, his Secretary of 
Legation, was the bearer of Mr. Adams' urgencies. Accordingly, 
Mr. Jefferson left Paris, on the 1st of March, for the purpose of co-oper- 
ating with Mr. Adams in a second attempt to negotiate a treaty of 
commerce with Great Britain. On his arrival in London, the two 
Ministers joined, and agreed on a very summary and liberal form 
of treaty to be offered, proposing, in direct terms, a mutual exchange 
of citizenship, of ships, and of productions generally. 

The reader will be amused with Mr. Jefferson's account of the 
magnanimous reception of their proposition, and of the final result 
of his trip to the dignified Court of St. James ! I 

" On my presentation, as usual, to the King and Queen, at their 
■levees, it was impossible for any thing to be more ungracious, than 
their notice of Mr. Adams and myself. I saw, at once, that the 
ulcerations of mind in that quarter, left nothing to be expected on 
the subject of my attendance ; and, on the first conference with the 
Marquis of Caermarthen, the Minister for foreign affairs, the dis- 
tance and disinclination which he betrayed in his conversation, the 
vagueness and evasions of his answers to us, confirmed me in the 
behef of their aversion to have any thing to do with us. We de- 
Uvered him, however, our Projet, Mr. Adams not despairing as 
much as I did, of its effect. We afterwards, by one or more notes, 
requested his appointment of an interview and conference, which, 
without directly decUning, he evaded, by pretence of other pressing 
occupations for the moment. After staying there seven weeks, till 
within a few days of the expiration of our commission, I informed 
the Minister, by note, thatiny duties at Paris required my return to 
that place, and that I should, with pleasure, be the bearer of any 
commands to his Ambassador theie. He answered, that he had 
none, and wishing me a pleasant journey, I left London the 26thj 
and arrived at Paris the 30th of April." 

22 



246 LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

Mr, Jefferson's duties, while Minister Plenipotentiary at Paris, 
were principally confined to the subject of our commercial relations 
with that country ; in which he effected many important modifica- 
tions, highly advantageous to the United States. He succeeded in 
procuring the receipt of our whale oils, salted fish, and salted meats, 
on favorable terms ; the admission of our rice on equal terms with 
that of Piedmont, Egypt, and the Levant ; a suppression of the 
duties on our wheat. Hour, furs, &c. ; the suppression of the mo- 
nopoly for making and selling»spermaceti candles ; the naturaliza- 
tion of our ships ; a mitigation of the monopoly of our tobacco 
trade by the farmers-general of France; a reduction of the du- 
ties on our tar, pitch, and turpentine ; and the free admission of our 
productions generally, into their West India islands. In exchange, 
the United States received, by direct trade, the wines, brandies, oils, 
and productions and manufactures generally, of France, These 
objects were not accomplished, however, without a series of difficult 
and laborious negotiations, aided by the mutual good temper and 
dispositions of both parties, and by the mediation of a powerful 
auxiliary and friend at that Court, whose arduous and disinterested 
services in the cause of America, can never be forgotten. 

" On these occasions," says he, " I was powerfully aided by all 
the influence and the energies of the Marquis de La Fayette, who 
proved himself equally zealous for the friendship and welfare of both 
nations ; and,, in justice, I must also say, that I found the govern- 
ment entirely disposed to befriend us on all occasions, and to yield 
us every indulgence, not absolutely injurious to themselves. T^ie 
Count de Vergennes had the reputation with the diplomatic corps, 
of being wary and slippery in his diplomatic intercourse ; and so 
he might be, with those whom he knew to be slippery, and double 
faced themselves. As he saw that I had no indirect views, practic- 
ed no subtleties, meddled in no intrigues, pursued no concealed ob- 
ject, I found him as frank, as honorable, as easy of access to reason, 
as any man with whom 1 had ever done business ; and I must 
say the same for his successor, Montmorin, one of the most honest 
and worthy of human beings." 

Our commerce in the Mediterranean having, at this time, lieen 
suddenly placed under alaim, by the captme of two of our vessels 
and crews, by the Barbary cruisers, Mr. Jefferson projected a coali- 
tion of the principal European Powers, subject to their habitual 
depredations, to compel the piratical States to perpetual peace, and 
to guaranty that peace to each other. He was early and resolutely 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 24T 

determined, so far as his opinions could have weight, that the Uni- 
ted States should nevei; acquiesce in " the European humiliation," 
as he termed it, ^r'pfiirchasing their peace of those lawless pirates. 
'• Millions forfaefence, but not a cent for tribute," was his celebra- 
ted motto. The following is a statement of his reasons for this dig- 
nified and energetic policy, addressed to Mr. Adams, soon after re- 
turning to Paris, with a view to obtain his concurrence in the prop- 
osition. 

'' 1. Justice is in favor of this opinion. 2. Honor favors it. 3. It 
will procure us respect in Europe ; and respect is a safeguard to 
interest. 4. It will arm the federal head, with the safest of all the 
instruments of coercion over its delinquent members, and prevent 
it from using what would be less safe. I think, that so far you go 
with me. But in the next steps we shall differ. 5. I think it least 
expensive. 6. Equally effectual. I ask a fleet of one hundred and 
fifty guns, the one half of which shall be in constant cruise. This 
fleet, built, manned, and victualled for six months, will cost four 
iumdred and fifty thousand pounds sterling. Its aimual expense 
will be three hundred pounds sterling a gun, including every thing : 
this will be forty-five thousand pounds sterling a year. I take 
British experience for the basis of my calculation : though we 
know, from our own experience, that we can do in this way for 
pounds lawful, what costs them pounds sterling. Were we to 
charge all this to the Algerine war, it would amount to little more 
than we must pay if we buy peace. But as it is proper and neces- 
sary, that we should establish a small marine force, (even were we 
to buy a peace from the Algerines) and as that force, laid vip in 
our dock -yard, would cost half as much annually as if kept in or- 
der for service, we have a right to say, that only twenty two thou- 
sand and five hundred pounds sterling, per annum, should be 
charged to the Algerine war. 7. It will be as effectual. To all the- 
mismanagements of Spain and Portugal, urged to show that war 
against those people is ineffectual, I urge a single fact to prove the 
contrary, where there is any management. About forty years ago^ 
the Algerines having broke their treaty with France, this court 
sent Monsieur de Massiac, with one large and two small frigates : 
he blockaded the harbor of Algiers three months, and they subscrib- 
ed to the terms he proposed. If it be adiiiitted, however, that war, 
on the fairest prospects, is still exposed to uncertainties, I weigh 
against this the greater uncertainty of the duration of a peace bought 
with money, from such a people, from a Dey eighty years old, and 
by a nation who, on the hypothesis of buying peace, is to have 
no power on the sea to enforce an observance of it, 

" So far I have gone on the supposition, that the whole weight of 
this war would rest on us. But 1, Naples will join us. The 



248 LtFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

character of their naval minister (Acton), his known sentiments 
with respect to the peace Spain is officially trying to make foe 
them, and his dispositions against the Algerines, give the best 
grounds to believe it. 2. Every principle of reason assures us, 
that Portugal will join us, I state this as taking for granted, what 
all seem to believe, that they will not be at peace with Algiers. 
I suppose, then, that a convention might be formed between Por- 
tugal, Naples, and the United States, by which the burden of the 
war might be quotaed on them, according to their respective wealth : 
and the term of it should be, when Algiers should subscribe to a 
peace with all three ou equal terms. This might be left open for 
other nations to accede to ; and many, if not most of the powers 
of Europe (except France, England, Holland, and Spain, if her 
peace be made) would sooner or later enter into the confederacy, for 
the sake of having their peace with the piratical States guarantied 
by the whole. I suppose, that, in this case, our proportion of force 
would not be the half of what I first calculated on." 

Presuming on Mr. Adams' concurrence, and without waiting his 
answer, Mr. Jefferson immediately draughted and proposed to the 
diplomatic corps at Paris, for consultation with their respective gov- 
ernments, articles of special confederation against the Barbary Pow- 
ers, iu the following terms ; 

"Proposals for concerted operation among the powers at v/ar v/ith 
the piratical States of Barbary. 

1. It is proposed, that the several powers at war Avitli the pirati- 
cal States of Barbary, or any two or more of them, who shall be 
willing, shall enter into a convention to carry on their operations 
against those States, in concert, beginning with the Algerines. 

2. This convention shall remain open to any other power, avIio 
shall, at any hiture time, wish to accede to it : the parties reserving 
the right to prescribe the conditions of such accession, according (o 
the circumstances existing at the time it shall be proposed. 

3. The object of the convention shall be to compel the piratical 
States to perpetual peace, without price, and to guaranty that peace 
to each other. 

4. The operations for obtaining this peace, shall be constant cruis 
es on their coast, with a naval force now to be agreed on^ It is 
not proposed, that this force shall be so considerable, as to be incon- 
venient to any party. It is believed, that half a dozen frigates, 
with as many tenders or xebecs, one half of which shall be in cruise, 
while the other half is at rest, will suffice. 

5. T'he force agreed to be necessary, shall he furnished by the 
parties, in certain quotas, now to be fixed ; it being expected, that 
each will be willing to contribute, in such proportion as circum- 
stances mav render reasonable. 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 249 

6. As miscarriages often proceed iioin the want of harmony 
among officers of different nations, the parties shall now consider 
and decide, whether it will not be better to contribute their quotas 
in money, to be employed in titling out and keeping on duty a 
single fleet of the force agreed on. 

7. The difficulties and delays, too^ which will attend the man- 
agement of these operations, if coaducted by the parties themselves 
separately, distant as their courts may be from, one another, and 
incapable of meeting in consultation, suggest a question, whether 
it will not be better for them to give full powers, for that purpo&e,. 
to their Ambassadors, or other Ministers resident at some one court 
of Europe, who shall form a Conunittee, or Council, for carrying 
this convention into effect ; wherein, the vote of each member sliail 
be computed in proportion to the quota of his sovereign, and the 
majority so computed, shall prevail in aU questions within the 
view of this convention. The court of Versailles is proposed, on 
account of its neighborhood to the Mediterranean, and because ali, 
those powers are represented there, who are likely to become par- 
ties to this Convention. 

8. To save to that Council the embarrassment of personal soli- 
citations for office, and to assure the parties, that their contributions 
^v\\l be applied solely to the object for which they are destined, there 
shall be no establishment of officers for the said Council, such as 
Commissioners, Secretaries, or any other kind, with either salaries 
or perquisites,, nor any other lucrative appointments,* but such. 
whose functions are to be exercised on board the said vessels, 

9. Should war arise between any two of the parties to this con- 
vention, it shall not extend to this enterprise, nor interrupt it ; but 
as to this, they shall be reputed at peace. • 

10. When Algiers shall be reduced to peace, the other piratical 
States, if they refuse to discontinue tlieir piracies, shall become the 
objects of this convention, either successively or to.o"ether, as shall 
seem best. 

11. Where this convention would interfere with treaties actually 
existing between any of the parties and the States of Barbary, the 
treaty shall prevail, and such party shall be allowed to withdraw 
from the operations against that State." 

The proposals were received with applause by Port'jgal, Naples, 
the two Sicilies, Venice, Malta, Demark, and Sweden. Spain had 
just concluded a treaty with Algiers, at the expense of three mill- 
ions of dollars, and was indisposed to rehnquish the benefit of Iier 
engagement, until a first infraction by the other party, when she 
was ready to join. Mr. Jeflferson had previously sounded the dis- 
positions of the Count de Vergennes ; and although France was at 
peace, by a mercenarv tenure, with the Barbary States, and fears 

22 " 



250 LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

weie entertained, that she would secretly give them her aid, he did 
not think it proper, in his conference with that Minister, to insinu- 
ate a doubt of the fair conduct of his government ; but on stating 
to him the proposition, he mentioned that apprehensions were felt, 
that England would mterfere in behalf of the piratical Powers. 
' She dares not do it,' was his reply. Mr. Jefferson pressed the point 
no further. The other Ministers were satisfied with this indication 
of the sentiments of France, and nothing was now wanting to 
bring the measure into direct consideration, but the assent of the 
United States, and their authority to make the formal stipulation. 
Mr. Jefferson communicated to Congress the favorable prospect of 
protectmg their commerce from the Barbary depredations, and for 
such a term of time, as by an exclusion of them from the 'sea. 
would change their characters, from a predatory to an agricultural 
people ; towards which, however, should the measure be approved, 
it was expected they would contribute a frigate, and its expenses, 
for constant cruise. But the United States were in no condition 
to unite in such an undertaking. The powers of Congress over 
the people for obtaining contributions, being merely recommenda- 
tory, and openly disregarded by the States, they declined entering 
into an eilgagement, which they were conscious they could not ful- 
fil vv'ith punctuality. The association, consequently, fell through : 
but the principle has ever since governed in the American councils, 
and its first recommendation by Mr: Jefferson, on the present occa- 
sion, may be regarded as the germ of the American Navy ! This 
point will receive a furtlier illustration in the sequel. 

The remaining public objects of importance, w^hich engaged \\\fi 
attention, were : 1st, The settlement of our financial concerns with 
cur bankers in France and Holland, which were in a most critical 
and embarrassing state. Owing to the partial suspension in the 
action of our govermiient, while passing from the Confederation 
to the Constitutional form, the credit of the nation stood, at one 
time, on the vei^e of bankruptcy. Seeing there was not a mo- 
ment to loose, Mr. Jefferson went directly to Holland, joined Mr. 
Adams at the Hague, where, without instructions, and at their own 
risk, they executed bonds for a million of florins, and placed the 
1 credit of the United States in security, for three years to come : 
by which time they thought the new government would get fairly 
under way. 2d, The conclusion of a Consular convention witU 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON, 251 

France, based upon republican principles. 3d, The restoration of 
cettain prizes taken from the British during the war, recaptured bv 
Denmark, and delivered up to the British. He instituted meas- 
ures to recover indemnification from Denmark ; but the negotia- 
tion, by imavoidable circumstances, was spun out beyond the term 
of his ministry. 4th, The redemption of American citizens taken 
captive by the Algerines ; and the formation of treaties with the 
Barbary States. The inability of the United States to supply him 
with the necessary funds, prevented the redemption of the Algerine 
captives, until after his return from France ; and the only treaty 
which he sticceeded in concluding with the Barbary States, was 
that with the government of Morocco. 

It will be ahke curious and interesting to the American reader, 
to know how the general appearance of things in Europe, struck 
the republican mind of Mr. Jefferson. His private letters, while hi 
Paris, addressed to his friends in America, comprise the most nerv- 
ous, and in some respects, the most valuable portions of his volu- 
minous correspondence. His bold and picturesque views of the 
state of society and manners in Europe, his fervid and graphic com- 
parisons of its governments, laws and institutions, with those of re- 
publicanized America, and his cogent and unremitting exhortations 
to his countrymen, to preserve themselves, and the blessings they 
enjoy, free from contamination from the people and principles of 
the old world, are among the most valuable and interesting legacies 
which he has bequeathed to his country. We shall be excused for 
indulging in copious selections from his correspondence, during this 
various and widely instructive interval of his public life. 

To Mr. Monroe. — "I sincerely wish you may find it convenient 
to come here ; the pleasure of the trip will be less than you expect,, 
but the utility greater. It will make you adore your own countrvr 
its soil, its chmate, its equality, liberty, laws, people and manners. 
My God ! how httle do my countiymen know what precious bless- 
ings they are in possession of, and Avhich no other people on earth 
enjoy. I confess I had no idea of it myself While we shall see 
multiplied instances of Europeans going to live in America, I will 
venture to say no man now living, will ever see an instance of an 
American removing to settle in Europe, and continuing there. 
Come then and see the proofs of this, and on your return, add your 
testimony to that of every thinking American, in order to satisfy 
our countrymen how much it is their interest to preserve, uninfect- 



252 LIFE, WRITINGS. AND OPINIONS 

ed by contagion, those peculiarities in their governments and man- 
ners, to which they are indebted for those blessings."' 

To Mr. Bellini. — "Behold me at length on the vaunted scene 
of Europe ! It is not necessary for your information, that I should 
enter into details concerning it. But you are, perhaps, curious to 
know how this new scene has struck a savage of the movmtains of 
America. Not aclvanlageou-^ly, I assure you. I find the general 
iate of humanity here most deplorable. The truth of Voltaire's ob- 
servation oli'ers itself perpetually, that every man here must be ei- 
ther the hammer or the anvil. It is a true picture of that country tu 
which they say we shall pass hereafter, and where we are to see 
God and his angels in splendor, and crowds of the damned trampled 
under their feet. While the great mass of the people are thus sufier- 
ing under physical and moral oppression, I have endeavored to ex- 
amine more nearly the condition of the great, to appreciate the true 
value of the circumstances in their situation which dazzle the bulk 
of spectators, and, especially, to compare it with that degree of hap- 
piness which is enjoyed in America hj cvcvy class of people. In- 
trigues of love occupy the younger, and those of ambition the eldei 
part of the great. Conjugal love having no existence among them, 
domestic happiness, of which that is the basis, is utterly unknown. 
In lieu of this, are substituted pursuits which nourish and invigorate 
all our bad passions, and which offer only moments of ecstacy, amidst 
days and months of restlessness and torment. Much, very much 
inferior, this, to the tranquil, permanent felicity, with which domes- 
1 ic society in America blesses most of its inhabitants ; leaving them 
to follow steadily those pursuits which health and reason approve, 
and rendering truly dehcious the intervals of those pursuits. 

'•In science, the mass of the people is two centuries behind ours ; 
their literati, half a dozen years before us. Books, really good, ac 
(juire just reputation in that time, and so become known to us, and 
communicate to us all their advances in knowledge. Is not this 
tielay compensated, by our being placed out of the reach of that 
swarm of nonsensical publications, which issues daily from a thou- 
sand presses, and perishes almost in issuing ? AVith respect to what 
are termed polite manners, without sacrificing too much the sinceri- 
ty of language, I would wish ray countrymen/^to adopt just so much 
of European politeness, as to be ready to make all those little sacri- 
fices of self, which really render European manners amiable, and 
relieve society from the disagreeAble scenes to which rudeness often 
subjects it. Here, it seems that a man might pass a life without en- 
countering a single rudeness. In the pleasures of the table they 
are far before us,^ because with good taste they unite temperance. 
They do not terminate the most sociable meals by transforming 
themselves into brutes. I have never yet seen a man drunk in 
France, even among the lowest of the people. Were I to proceed 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 253 

to tell you how much I enjoy their architecture, sculpture, painting-, 
jnusic, I should want words. It is in these arts they shine. The 
last of them, particularly, is an enjoyment, the deprivation of which 
with us cannot be calculated. I am almost ready to say, it is the 
only thing which from my heart I envy them, and which, in spite 
of all the authority of the ]3ecalogue, I do covet. But 1 am running 
on in an estimate of things infinitely better known to you than to 
me, and which will only serve to convince you, that I have brought 
with me all the prejudices of country, habit, and age."' 

To J. Bannister, Jr. — " But why send an American youth {(» 
Europe for education l What are the objects of an useful Ameri- 
can education ? Classical knowledge, modern languages, chietiv 
French, Spanish and Itahan ; Matiiematics, Natural Philosopli}-. 
Natural History, Civil History, and Ethics. In Natural Pliilosophv. 
I mean to include Chemistry and Agriculture, and in Natural His- 
tory, to include Botany, as well as the other branches of those de- 
partments. It is true, that the habit of speaking the modern lan- 
guages cannot be so well acquired iii America ; but every other ar- 
ticle can be as well acquired at William and Mary College, as at 
any place in Europe. When college education is done with, and a 
young man is to prepare himself for public life, he must cast his 
eyes (for America) either on Law or Physic. For the former, where 
can he apply so advantageously as to Mr. Wythe? For the latter, 
lie must come to Europe : the medical class of students, therefore, 
is the only one which need come to Europe. Let us vioAv the dis- 
advantages of sending a youtli to Europe. To enumerate them 
all, would require a volume. I will select a few. If he goes to 
England, he learns drinking, horse racing, and boxing. These ' 
are the peculiarities of English education. The follovring circum- 
stances are common to education in that, and the otJier countries 
of Europe. He acfjiures a fondness for European luxury and dissi- 
pation, and a contempt for the simplicity of his own country ; he 
is fascinated with the privileges of the European aristocrats, and 
sees, vrith abhorrence, the lovely equality v.diich the poor enjoy with 
the rich in his own country ; h(j cantracts a partiality for aristocra- 
cy or monarchy ; he forjns foreign friendships which vrili never he 
useful to him. and loses the season of life for forming in his own 
country those friendships, Vihich, of all othei's, are the most faithful 
and permanent; he is led by the strongesi. of all the human pas- 
sions into a spirit for female intrigue, destructive of his own aJid oth- 
ers' happiness, or a passion for harlots, destructive of his health, and 
in both cases, learns to consider fidelity to the marriage bed as an 
ungentlemanly practice, and inconsistent with happiness ; he recol- 
lects the voluptuary dress and arts of the EuroiDean woj^ien, and 
pities aird despises the chaste affections and simplicity of (hose of 
his own country ; he retains, through hfe. a fond recollection, and 



254 LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

a hankering" after those places, which were the scenes of his first 
pleasures and of his first connections; he returns to his own country 
a foreigner, unacquainted witli the practices of domestic economy 
necessary to preserve liim from ruin, speaking and writing his na- 
tive tongue as a foreigner, and therefore unqualiiied to obtain those 
distinctions, which eloquence of the pen and tongue ensures in a free 
country ; for J would observe to you, that what is called -style in 
writing or speaking, is formed very early in hfe, while the imagina- 
tion is warm, and impressions are permanent. I ani of opinion, that 
there never was an instance of a man's writing or speaking his na- 
tive tongue with elegance, who passed from fifteen to twenty years 
of age out of the country where it was spoken. Thus, no instance 
exists of a person's writing two languages perfectly. That will al- 
ways appear to be his native language, which was most fomiliar to 
him in his youth. It appears to me then, that an American com- 
ing to Europe for education, loses in his knowledge, in his morals, 
in his health, in his habits, and in his happiness. I had entertained 
only doubts on this head, before I came to Europe : what I see and 
hear, since I came here, proves more than I had even suspected. 
Cast your eye over America : who are the men of most learning, of 
most eloquence, most beloved by their countrymen, and most trusted 
and promoted by them ? They are those who have been educated 
among them, and whose manners, morals, and habits, are perfectly 
homogeneous with those of the country." 

To Mrs. Bingham. — " I know. Madam, that the twelve-montlt 
is not yet expired ; but it will be, nearly, before this will have the 
honor of being put into your hands. You are then engaged to tell 
me, truly and honestly, whether you do not find the trancjuil pleas- 
ures of America, preferable to the empty bustle of Paris. For to 
what does that bustle tend? At eleven o'clock, it is day, chez 
madamc, the curtains are drawn. Propped on bolsters and pil- 
lows, and her head scratched into a little order, the bulletins of the 
sick are read, and the billets of the well. She writes to some of her 
acquaintance, and receives the visits of others. If the morning is 
not very thronged, she is able to get out and hobble round the cage 
of the Palais Royal ; but she must hobble quickly, for the coiffeur's 
turn is come ; and a tremendous turn it is ! Happy, if he does not 
make her arrive when dinner is half over ! The torpitude of diges- 
tion a little passed, she flutters half an hour through the streets, by 
way of paying visits, and then to the spectacles. These finished, 
another half hour is devoted to dodging in and out of the doors of 
hei' very sincere friends, and away to supper. After supper, cards ; 
and after cards, bed : to rise at noon the next day, and to tread, like 
a mill-horse, the same trodden circle over again. Thus the days of 
life are consumed, one by one, without an object beyond the present 
moment ; ever flying from the ennid of that, yet carrying it with 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 255 

US ; eternally in pursuit of happiness, which keeps eternally before 
tis. If death or bankruptcy happen to trip us out of the circle, it 
is matter for the buzz of the evening, and is completely forgotten by 
the next morning. In America, on the other hand, the society of 
your husband, the fond cares for the children, the arrangements of 
the house, the improvements of the^^roiinds, fill every moment with 
a lieaTtKy and iisehJiTlictivity. Every exertion is encouraging, be- 
cause to present amusement it joins the promise of some future good. 
The intervals of leisure are filled by the society of real friends, 
whose affections are not thinned to cob-web, by being spread over 
a thousand objects. This is the picture, in the light it is presented 
to my mind ; now let me have it in yours. If we do not concur 
this year, we shall the next ; or if not then, in a year or two more. 
You see I am determined not to suppose myself mistaken." 

It was during Mr. Jefferson's residence in France, that the gov- 
ernment of the United States underwent the crisis of transition 
" from its chrysalid to its organic form," to use one of his own hap- 
py metaphors ; and in the course of this final and interesting meta- 
morphosis, opinions were gradually evolved, which were fundamen- 
tally dissonant in character, and which ultimately divided the na- 
tion into two distinct and perpetual parties. -Soon after the restora 
lion of peace, the incompetency of the Confederation to sustain the 
republican structure, was so alarmingly felt, that reasonable minds 
gave way, even of those who had been most ardent in its establish- 
ment ; and they apostatized, in numbers, to the principles of mon- 
archical government, as the only refuge of political safety. 

The causes of this deflection in political opinion, are inherent, 
more or less, in the constitution of man ; but powerful external rea- 
sons co-operated, at this period, to stimulate and force it on. The 
people had come out of the war of the Revolution, oppressed with an 
overwhelming indebtedness. They were oppressed with the debts 
of the Union, with the debts of the individual States, and with their 
own private debts ; and they were utterly incapacitated from dis- 
charging either, for the best of all causes, the want of pecuniary 
means. The inability of Congress, from the want of coercive pow- 
ers, to cancel the public obligations, destroyed the public credit] and 
the application of judgment and execution, in the case of private 
debts, drove the delinquent to prison, and destroyed the confidence 
between man and man. The interruption of their commerce with 
Great Britain, and the deficiency, as yet, of other markets for their 
productions, operated with peculiar severity upon the Eastern States; 



256 LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

and the neglect of a suitable relaxation of the judiciary arm, in those 
governments, brought on disastrous consequences. Under the pres- 
sure of the general distress, the popular discontent broke out into 
acts of violence, and liagrant insubordination. Tumultuary meet- 
ings were held in New-Hampshire and Connecticut ; and in Massa- 
chusetts a formidable insurrection arose, which menaced the very 
foundations of the government. 

These disturbances and commotions occasioned a general alarm 
throughout the Union. They excited a sensible distrust of the 
principles of our government, among its most sanguine votaries ; 
while, with its enemies, the intelligence of such occurrences was 
greeted with exultation, as affording a happy augury of the down- 
fall of the Republic. Now it was, that those comforting ideas of 
pubhc virtue, on which the beautiful edifice of Liberty was erected, 
began to be scouted as fallacious, chimerical. The people were 
discredited, feared ; and terror was to be fixed in their hearts, and 
in the mechanism of their government, as the only competent mo- 
tive of restraint, and engine of subordination. 

Mr. Jefferson was distant from his beloved country, at this dis- 
heartening juncture ; but his beneficent eye watched over her, and 
the voice of his counsels was heard and felt. His confidence in 
the soundness of the republican theory, underwent no change from 
those occasional eccentricities in practice, which are inseparable 
from all human establishments, and which were chargeable, in 
the present case, to the pressure of the times, and the debilities 
of their first written essay, rather than to any inherent princi- 
ple of disorganization. His reliance upon the good sense of the 
people to rectify abuses in a proper manner, was so strong, that he 
deemed an occasional rebellion a desirable event, inasmuch as it 
afforded the best evidence, that this sense was active and vigorous ; 
to enlighten it, then, was the only thing necessary to ensure a fa- 
vorable result. Indeed,, his conviction of the capacity of mankind 
to govern themselves, was confirmed by the inteUigence of these 
irregular proofs of their dissatisfaction under the present circum- 
stances ; and he took care to impress his opinions upon his numer- 
ous correspondents in America, on every occasion, and in the most 
emphatic terms. An insight into his private correspondence, at 
this period, will afford a sublime entertainment to the lovers of 
human nature, and human rights. 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 257 

To Col. E. Carrington. — ^" I am persuaded myself, that the 
good sense of the people will always be found to be the best army. 
They may be led astray for a moment, but will soon correct them- 
selves. The people are the only censors of their governors ; and 
even their errors will tend to keep these to the true principles of their 
institution. To punish these errors too severely, would be to sup- 
press the only safeguard of the public liberty. The way to prevent 
these irregular interpositions of the people, is to give them full infor- 
mation of their affairs, through the channel of the public papers, and 
to contrive that those papers should penetrate the whole mass of the 
people. The basis of our governments being the opinion of the 
people, the very first object should be to keep that right ; and Avere 
it left to me to decide, whether we should have a government with- 
out newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not 
hesitate a moment to prefer the latter. But I should mean, that 
every man should receive those papers, and be capable of reading 
them. I am convinced that those societies, (as the Indians) which 
live without government, enjoy in their general mass an infinitely 
greater degree of happiness, than those who live under the Euro- 
pean governments. Among the former, public opinion is in the place 
of law, and restrains morals as powerfully as laws ever did any 
where. Among the latter, under pretence of governing, they have 
divided their nation into two classes, wolves and sheep. I do not 
exaggei'ate. This is the true picture of Europe. Cherish, there- 
fore, the spirit of our people, and keep alive their attention. Do not 
be too severe upon their errors, but reclaim them by enlightening 
them. If once they become inattentive to the public affairs, you, 
and I, and Congress, and Assemblies, Judges and Governors, shall 
all become wolves. It seems to be the law of our general nature, in 
spite of individual exceptions : and experience declares, that man is 
the only animal which devours his own kind ; for I can apply no 
milder term to the governments of Europe, and to the general prey 
of the rich on the poor." 

To James Madison. — "I am impatient to learn your sentiments 
on the late troubles in the Eastern States. So far as I have yet 
seen, they do not appear to threaten serious consequences. Those 
States have suffered by the stoppage of the channels of their com- 
merce, which have not yet found other issues. This must render 
money scarce, and make the people uneasy. This uneasiness has 
produced acts aljsolutely unjustifiable : but I hope they will provoke 
no severities from their governments. A consciousness of those in 
power, that their administration of the public affairs has been honest, 
may, perhaps, produce too great a degree of indignation : and those 
characters wherein fear predominates over hope, may apprehend too 
much from these instances of irregularity. They may conclude too 
iiastiiy, that nature has formed man insusceptible of any other gov- 

23 



258 LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

eminent than that of force, a conclusion not founded in truth nor 
experience. Societies exist under three forms, sufficiently distin- 
guishable. 1. Without government, as among our Indians. 2. 
Under governments, wherein the will of every one has a just influ- 
ence ; as is the case in England, in a slight degree, and in our 
States, in a great one. 3. Under governments of force; as is the 
case ill all other monarchies, and in most of the other republics. 
To have an idea of the curse of existence under these last, they 
must be seen. It is a government of wolves over sheep. It is a 
prol^lem, not clear in my mind, that the first condition is not the 
best. But I believe it to be inconsistent with any great degree of 
population. The second state has a great deal of good in it. The 
mass of mankind under that enjoys a precious degree of liberty and 
happiness. It has its evils too : the principal of which is the turbu- 
lence to which it is subject. But weigh this against the oppressions 
of monarchy, and it becomes nothing. Malo periculosaju liber- 
fMtem quani quietam serviiutem. Even this evil is productive of 
good. It prevents the degeneracy of government, and nourishes a 
general attention to the public affairs. I hold it, that a little rebellion 
now and then is a good thing, and as necessary in the political world, 
as storms in the physical. Unsuccessful rebellions, indeed, gener- 
ally establish the encroachments on the rights of the people, which 
have produced them. An observation of this truth should render 
honest republican governors so mild in their punishment of rebell- 
ions, as not to discourage them too much. It is a medicine necessa- 
ry for the sound health of government." 

To David Hartley, of England. — " The most interesting intel- 
ligence from America, is that respecting the late insurrection in Mas- 
sachusetts. The cause of this has not been developed to me to my 
perfect satisfaction. The most probable is, that those individuals 
were of the imprudent number of those who have involved them- 
selves in debt beyond their abilities to pay, and that a vigorous effort 
in that government to compel the payment of private debts, and 
raise money for public ones, produced the resistance. I believe you 
may be assured, that an idea or desire of returning to any thing 
like their ancient government, never entered into their heads. I 
am not discouraged by this. For thus I calculate. An insurrec- 
tion in one of thirteen States, in the course of eleven years that they 
have subsisted, amounts to one in any particular State, in one hun- 
dred and forty-three years, say a century and a half This would 
not be near as many as have happened in every other government 
that has ever existed. So that we shall have the difference between 
a light and a heavy government as clear gain. I have no fear, but 
that the result of our experiment will be, that men may be trusted 
to govern themselves without a master. Could the contrary of this 
be proved, I should conclude, either that there is no God, ov that he 
is a malevolent being. 



OF I'HOMAS JEiFFERSOK. 259 

To Col. Smith. — " Wonderful is the effect of impudent and per- 
5-eveiing lying. The British ministry have so long hired their gaz- 
etteers to lepeat, and model into every form, lies about our being 
in anarchy, that the world has at length believed them, the English 
nation has believed them, the ministers themselves have come to 
believe them, and what is more wonderful, we have believed them 
ourselves. Yet where does this anarchy exist ? Where did it ever 
exist, except in the single instance of Massachusetts J And can his- 
tory produce an instance of rebellion so honorably conducted ? I 
say nothing of its motives. They were founded in ignorance, not 
wickedness. God forbid, we should ever be twenty years without 
such a rebellion. The people cannot be all, and always, well in- 
formed. The part which is wrong will be discontented, in propor 
tion to the importance of the facts they misconceive. If they re- 
main quiet under such misconceptions, it is a lethargy, the forerun- 
ner of death to the public liberty. We have had thirteen States in- 
dependent for eleven years. There has been one rebellion. That 
comes to one rebellion in a century and a half for each State. 
WKa,f. ouuiitry oelore ever exisied a i^cntuij and a half without a 
rebellion ? And what country can preserve its liberties, if its rulers 
are not warned from time to time, that the people preserve the spir- 
it of resistance ? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them 
right as to facts, pardon, and pacify them. What signify a few 
lives lost in a century or two ? The tree of hberty must be refresh- 
ed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its 
natural manure." 

Such is a specimen of the current of sound philosophy, which Mr. 
Jefferson poured into the breasts of the public characters of Ameri- 
ca, at this important juncture. His opinions were received with 
veneration by all those with whom he had acted on the theatre of 
the Revolution ; and his earnest and unremitting counsels had a 
powerfid influence in checking the anti-republican tendencies, which 
had already risen up. In a short time, the deluge of evils which 
overflowed the country, was traced to its original source ; and no 
sooner was the happy discovery made, than the virtue and good 
sense of the people, in verification of his repeated auguries, nobly 
interposed, and, instead of seeking relief in rebellion and civil war, 
assembled their wise men together to apply a rational and peacea- 
ble remedy. 

The first grand movement towards re-organizing the government 
of the United States, upon the admirable basis of the present Con- 
stitution, was made in the General Assembly of Virginia, on motion 
of Mr. Madison. The proposition contemplated an amendment of 



260 



Life, xv-Ri-TiNGs, and oPmroNsr 



the Confederation, which should confer on Congress tlie absolute 
and excUisive power over the regulation of commerce ; and result- 
ed in the convocation of a Convention for that pilrpose, to meet at 
Annapolis, in September, 1786. The commercial Convention fail- 
ed in point of representation ; but it laid the foundation for the call 
of a grand National Convention, with powers to revise the entire 
system of government, to meet at Philadelphia the ensuing year. 
The opinions of Mr. Jefferson had an undoubted influence in 
tire origination of these important proceedings in America. In all 
his despatches to the government, and in his private letters to the 
leading political men, he had reiterated the necessity of fundamen- 
tal reformations in the federal compact. The defect which he most 
deplored in the existing system, was the absence of a unifornr pow- 
er to regulate our commercial intercourse with foreign nations. 
This disability was the incessant theme of his complaints. It M'aw 
the primary source, he deoiciicU, of ihoHe Irregularities ana i-u^^nr 
va3s^lents, which continually obstructed his negotiations with the 
European nations. Those Powers who were disposed to treat, 
would never do it, so long as the government had no authority to 
cover them, by treaty, from the liavigation acts of the particular 
.States, and those who were indisposed, at present, would forever re- 
main so for the same reason ; whilst all would exercise the right to 
retaliate on the Union, the restrictions imposed on their commerce 
by the laws of any one individual State. He maintained a constant 
correspondence on these points with Washington, Wythe, Monroe, 
Langdon, Gerry, and particularly his friend and protege, Mad- 
ison, with whom his wishes were laws, and his opinions, oracles. 
The intelhgence of the first movements in America, towards a re- 
formation of the national compact, filled him with the liveliest grat- 
ification, as evmced by his letters of that date. A single specimen 
will sutiice to show the general tenor of his correspondence on this 
subject. 

To James Madison. — " I have heard, with great pleasure, that 
our Assembly have come to the resolution, of giving the regulation 
of their commerce to the federal head. I will venture to assert, that 
there is not one of its opposersj who, placed on this giound, would 
not see the wisdom of the measure. The politics of Europe render 
it indispensably necessary, tliat, with respect to every thing external, 
we be one nation only, firmly hooped together. Interior govern- 
ment is what each State should keep to itself. If it were seen iu 



OF THOMAS JEFFRSON". 261 

Europe, that all our States could be brought to concur in what the 
Virginia Assembly has done, it would produce a total revolution in 
their opinion of us, and respect for us. And it should ever be held 
in mind, that insult and war are the consequences of a want of res- 
pectability in the national character. As long as the States exer- 
cise, separately, those acts of power which respect foreign nations, 
so long will there continue to be irregularities committed by some 
one or other of them, which will constantly keep us on an ill foot- 
ing with foreign nations." 

The National Convention, appointed to digest a new Constitution 
of government, assembled at Philadelphia, on the 25th of May, 
1787. Delegates attended from all the States, except Rhode-Isl- 
and, who refused to appoint. George Washington was unanimous- 
ly chosen to preside over their deliberations. They sat with clos- 
ed doors, and passed an injunction of entire secrecy on their pro- 
ceedings. This was an erroneous beginning, in the opinion of Mr. 
Jefferson, who viewed every encroachment upon the freedom of 
speech with extreme jealousy. " I am sorry," he writes to Mr. Ad- 
ams, "they began their deliberations by so abominable a precedent, 
as that of tying up the tongues of their members. Nothing can jus- 
tify this example, but the innocence of their intentions, and ignor- 
ance ^of the value of public discussions. I have no doubt that all 
their other measures will be good and wise. It is really an assem- 
bly of demi-gods." 

During the deliberations and discussions of this august and ven-* 
erable body, those feaiful anti-republican heresies, which had sprung 
up during the short interval of peace, developed themselves in a 
more tangible and decided form. Various propositions were sub- 
mitted, some of which were dangerous approximations to monarchy. 
One of these, proposed by Alexander Hamilton, w^as izi fact a com- 
promise between the two principles of royalism and republicanism. 
According to this plan, the Executive and one branch of the Legis- 
lature, were to continue in office during good behavior ; and the 
Governors of the States were to be named by these two permanent 
organs. The proposition, however, was rejected ; upon which Mr. 
Hamilton left the Convention, and never returned again until near 
its conclusion. 

Although a stranger to these transactions, Mr. Jefferson could not 
contemplate the idea of such a convention without great anxiety, 

23* 



262 LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPII<JIONS 

knowing, as he did, the poUtical degeneracies which liad arisen 
among his countrymen. His counsels were eagerly solicited by 
Madison, Wythe, and others, from time to time, during the progress 
of the Convention, and he communicated to them his opinions, with 
equal modesty and frankness. It is very evident, from the tenor of 
aoine of his answers, that he had received hints of the strong mo- 
narchical dispositions which characterized a considerable portion of 
the members. His fears were so strong from this direction, that he 
leaned heavily the other way, in stating his opinions of the necessa- 
ry reformations. 

To Mr. Madison. — '• The idea of separating the executive bu- 
siness of ths confederacy from Congress, as the judiciary is already, 
in some degree, is just and necessary. I had frequently pressed on 
(he members individually, while in Congress, the doing this by a 
resolution of Congress for appointing an executive connnittee. to 
act during the sessions of Congress, as the committee of the States 
was to act during their vacations. But the referring to this com- 
miftee all executive business, as it should present itself, would re- 
t{uire a more persevering self-denial than I suppose Congress to 
possess. It would be much better to make that separation b}' a fed- 
eral act. The negative proposed to be given them on all the acts 
of the several legislatures, is now, for the first time, suggested to my 
mind. Prima facie^ I do not like it. It fails in an essential 
character ; that the hole and the patch should be commensurate. 
But this proposes to mend a small hole, by covering the whole gar- 
ment. Not more than one out of one hundred State acts, concern 
the confederacy. This proposition, then, in order to give them one 
'degree of power, which they ought to have, gives them ninety-nine 
more, which they ought not to have, upon a presumption that they 
will aiot exercise the ninety-nine." 

To E. Carrington. — "I confess, I do not go as far in the re- 
forms thought necessary, as some of my correspondents in America; 
but if the convention should adopt such propositions, I shall sup- 
pose them necessary. My general plan would be, to make the 
States one, as to every thing connected with foreign nations, and 
several as to every thing purely domestic. But with all the imper- 
fections ot our present government, it is, without comparison, the 
best existing, or that ever did exist. Its greatest defect is the im- 
perfect manner in which matters of commerce have been provided 
for." 

To Mr. Hawkins. — " I look up with you to the federal conven- 
tion, for an amendment of our federal affairs. Yet I do not view 
them in so disadvantageous a light at present, as some do. And 
above all things, I am astonished at some people's considering a 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 263 

kingly government as a refuge. Advise such to read the fable of 
the frogs, who solicited Jupiter for a king. If that does not put 
them to rights, send them to Europe, to see something of the trap- 
pings of monarch}', and I will undertake, that every man shall go 
back thoroughly cured. If all the evils which can arise among us, 
from the republican form of government, from this day to the day 
of judgment, could be put into a scale against what this country 
suliers from its monarchical form, in a week, or England, in a 
month, the latter would preponderate. Consider the contents of 
the Red book in England, or the Almanac Royale of France, and 
say what a people gain by monarchy. No race of kings has ever 
presented above one man of common sense, in twenty generations. 
The best they can do is, to leave things to their ministers ; and 
what are their ministers, but a committee badly chosen ? If the 
king ever meddles, it is to do harm." 

I'o J. Jones — " I am anxious to hear what oiu" federal convention 
recommends, and what the vStates will do in consequence of their re- 
commendation. * * * "With all the defects of our constitution, 
whether general or particular, the comparison of our governments 
with those of Europe, is like a comparison of heaven and hell. Eng- 
land, hke the earth, may be allowed to take the intermediate sta- 
tion. And yet I hear there are people among you, who think the 
experience of oiu" governments has already proved, that republican 
governments will not answer. Send those gentry here, to count 
the blessings of monarchy. A king's sister, for instance, stopped in 
the road, and on a hostile journey, is sufficient cause for him to 
march immediately twenty-thousand men to revenge the insult, 
when he had shoAvn himself httle moved by the matter of right 
then in question." 

To G, Wythe.—" You ask nie in your letter w^hat ameliora- 
tions I think necessary in our federal constitution. It is now too 
late to answer the question, and it would have always been pre- 
sumption in me to have done it. Your own ideas, and those of the 
great characters who were to be concerned with you in these dis- 
cussions, will give the law, as they ought to do, to us all. My own 
general idea was,' that the States §]iould severally preserve their 
sovereignty in whatever concerns themselves alone ; and that what- 
ever may concern another State, or any foreign nation, should be made 
a part of the federal sovereignt)^ ; that the exercise of the federal 
sovereignty should be divided among three several bodies, legisla- 
tive, executive, and judiciary, as the State sovereignties are ; and 
that some peaceable means should be contrived, for the federal 
head to force compliance on the part of the States." 

To General Washington — " I remain in hopes of great and 
good effects from the decision of the Assembly over which you are 
presiding. To make our States one, as to all foreign concerns, pre- 



364 LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

serve them several as to all merely domestic, to give to the federal 
head some peaceable mode of enforcing its just authority, to organ- 
ize that head into legislative, executive, and judiciary departments, 
are great desiderata in our federal constitution. Yet with all its 
defects, and with all those of our particular governments, the in- 
conveniences resulting from them are so light, in comparison with 
those existing in every other government on earth, that our citizens 
may certainly be considered as in the happiest pohtical situation 
which exists." 

On the 17th of September, '87, the National Convention dis- 
solved, and submitted the result of their labors to the world. A 
more perfect political work, probably, never emanated from any as- 
sembly of men ; and nothing but a spirit of amity and mutual 
concession, unrivaled in national transactions, could have elicited 
such a result from such a discordancy of minds. The instrument^ 
however, was not without its defects; and as these were all on the side 
of power, and too palpable not to be detected by an intelligent peo- 
ple, it excited among the more jealous partisans of hberty, such a 
tem^jest of opposition, as rendered its acceptance by the nation ex- 
tremely problematical. It was taken up by special conventions in 
the several States, in the years '87 and '88. The contest raged 
the severest in Virginia, New York, Massachusetts, and New Hamp- 
shire. In these States, the public discussions were vehement and 
agitating ; but the question was finally carried in favor of ratifica- 
tion, by small majorities, in all of them. In Georgia, New Jersey, 
and Delaware, the Constitution was ratified without opposition ; 
and by considerable majorities, in Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Ma- 
ryland, and South Carolina. North Carolina w^ould only accept it 
upon the condition of previous amendments. Rhode Island declin- 
ed calling a convention, and did not accede to the Union until May, 
1790. Six States ratified without qualification, and seven, with 
the recommendation of certain specified amendments. 

Mr. Jeflferson received a copy of the new Constitution early in 
November, '87. He read and contemplated its provisions with gieat 
satisfaction, though not without seifious apprehensions from some of 
its features. His principal objections w^ere, the absence of a Dec- 
laration of Rights ensuring freedom of rehgion, freedom of the 
press, freedom of the person under the uninterrupted protection of 
the habeas corpus, the trial by jury in civil as well as criminal 
cases ; and the perpetual re-eligibility of the President. His opin- 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 265 

ions Were immediately consulted by his political friends in the Uni- 
ted States, and he communicated to them his approbations and ob- 
jections, without reserve. They are found stated at length, and in 
a most interesting manner, in a letter to Mr. Madison, dated Pari---, 
December 20th, 17S7. 

'•' I like much the general idea of framing a government, wliicli 
should go on of itself, peaceably, without needing continual recur- 
rence to the State legislatures. I like the organization of the gov- 
ernment into legislative, judiciary, and executive. J like the pov/er 
given the legislature to levy taxes, and for that I'cason solely, I ap- 
prove of the greater House being chosen by the people directly. 
For though I think a House, so chosen, will be very far inferior 
to the present Congress, will be very illy qualified to legislate for 
the Union, for foreign nations, etc. ; yet this evil does not v/eigh 
against the good of preserving inviolate the fundamental principle, 
that the people arc not to be taxed but by representatives i-iiuox.^ 
innnediately by themselves. I am captivated i)y the compromise 
.^c .1 — i-,-_w.^- .«-:..,„ ^f fi,p p-i-eat and little St-'it^'^ "^ the latter to 
equal, and the former to proportional mtluexice. I am much pleas- 
ed, too, Avith the sulxstitution of the method of voting bv persons, 
instead of that of voting by States ; and I like the negative given 
to the Executive, conjointly with a third of either H^ouse ; though 
I should have liked it better, had the judiciary been associated lor 
that purpose, or invested separately with a similar power. There 
are other good things of less moment. 

'•' I will now tell you what I do not like. First, the omission of 
a I-)ill of rights, providing clearly, and without the aid of sopliism, 
for freedom of religion, freedom of the press, protection against 
standing armies, restriction of monopolies, the eternal and unre- 
mitting force of the habeas corpus laws, and trials by jury in all 
matters of.foct triable by the laws of the land, and not by the 
laws of nations. To say, as Mr. Wilson does, that a bill of rights 
was not necessary, because all is reserved in the case of the general 
government, which is not given, while in the particular ones, all is 
given which is not reserved, might do for the audience to which it 
was addressed : but it is surely a gratis dictum, the reverse of 
which might just as well be said ; and it is opposed by strong in- 
ferences from the body of flie instrument, as well as from the omis- 
sion of the clause of our present Confederation, which had made 
the reservation in express terms. It was hard to conclude, because 
there had been a want of uniformity among the States as to the 
cases triable by jury, because some have been so incautious as to 
dispense with this mode of trial in certain cases, therefore the more 
prudent States shall be reduced to the same level of calami- 
ty. It would have been much more just and wise to have con- 
cluded the other way, that as most of the States had preserved, 



266 LIFE, WRITINGS, ANl) OPmiONS 

with jealousy this sacred palladium of liberty, those who had Wclfi' 
dered, should be brought back to it : and to have established gen- 
eral right rather than general Wrong. For I consider all the ill as 
<i5tablishcd, which may be established. I have a right to nothing, 
which another has a right to take away ; and Congress will have 
a rigjjt to take away trials by jury in all civil cases. Let mc add,r 
that a bill of rights is what the people are entitled to against every 
government on earth, genernl or particular ; and what lio just gov- 
ernment should refuse, or rest on inference. 

" The second feature I dishke, aud strongly dislike, is the aban- 
donment, in every instance, of the principle of rotation in office, 
and most particularly in the case of the President. Reason and 
experience tell us, that the first magistrate will always be re-elected 
if he may be re-elected. He is then an officer for life. This once 
observed, it becomes of so much consequence to certain nations, to 
have a friend or a foe at the head of our affairs, that they will 
u^i.^.i\,ic with money and with arms. A Galloman, or an Anglo-- 
man, will be suppoited l)y the nation he befriends. If once elect- 
ed, and at a — --nirl or third election outvotrd b->- --7- r>v *— ,.„.--, 
he will pretend false votes, loui piay, hold possession 01 the reins 
of government, be supported by the States voting for him, especial- 
ly if they be the central ones, lying in a compact body themselves, 
and separating their opponents ; and they will be aided by one 
nation in Europe, while the majority are aided by another. The 
election of a President of America, some years hence, will be much 
more interesting to certain nations of Europe, than ever the elec- 
tion of a king of Poland was. Reflect on all the instances in his- 
tory, ancient and modern, of elective monarchies, and say, if they 
do not give foundation for my fears : the Roman Emperors, the 
Popes while they were of any importance, the German Emp'nor? 
till they became hereditary in practice, the kings of Poland, the 
Deys of the Ottoman dependencies. It may be said, that if elec- 
tions are to be attended with these disorders, the less frequently 
they are repeated the better. But experience says, that to free 
them from disorder, they must be rendered less interesting by a 
necessity of change. No foreign power, nor domestic party, will 
wa-ste their blood and money to elect a person, who must go out at 
the end of a short period. The power of removing every fourth 
year by the vote of the people, is a power which they will not ex- 
ercise, and if they were dis|X)sed to exercise it, they would not be 
permitted. The King of Poland is removable every day by the 
diet. But they never remove him. Nor Avould Russia, the Em- 
peror, &c. permit them to do it. Smaller objections are, the ap- 
peals on matters of fact as well as law ; and the binding all per- 
sons, legislative, executive and judiciary, by oath, to maintain that 
constitution. I do not pretend to decide, what would be the best 
method of procuring the establishment of tlie manifold good thing* 



OP THOMAS JEFFERSON. 267 

ill this constitution, and of getting rid of the bad. Whether by 
adopting it, in hopes of future amendment ; or, after it shall have 
been duly weighed and canvassed by the people, after seeing the 
parts they generally disUke. and those they generally approve, to 
say to them, ' We see now what you wish. You are willing to 
give to your federal government such and such powers : Ijut you 
wish, at the same time, to have such and such fundamental rights 
secured to you, and certain sources of convulsion taken away. 
Be it so. Send together your deputies again. Let them establish 
your fundamental rights by a sacrosanct declaration, and let them 
pass the parts of the constitution you have approved. These will 
give powers to your federal government sufficient for your happi- 
ness.' 

" This is what might be said, and would probably produce a 
speedy, more perfect, and more permanent form of government. 
At all events, 1 hope you will not be discouraged from making 
other tiials, if the present one should fail. We are never permit- 
ted to despair of the commonwealth. I have thus told you freely 
what I like, and what I dislike, merely as a matter of curiosity ; 
for I know it is not in my power to offer matter of information to 
your judgment, which has been formed after hearing and weighing 
every thing which the wisdom of man could offer on these sub- 
jects. I own, I am not a friend to a very energetic government 
It is always oppressive. * * * j^f^gj- ^U, it is my principle 
that the will of the majorify should prevail. If they approve the 
proposed constitution in all its parts, I shall concur in it cheerfully, 
in hopes they will amend it, whenever they shall find it works 
wrong. This reliance cainot deceive us, as long as we remain 
virtuous ; and I think we shall be so, as long as agriculture is our 
principal object, which will be the case, while there remain vacant 
lands in any part of America. When we get piled upon one an- 
other in large cities, as in Europe, we shall become corrupt as in 
Europe, and go to eating cne another as they do there." 

With the mass of good which it contained, Mr. Jefferson found, 
on a careful scrutiny, such a mixture of evil in the new Constitu- 
tion, that he was in doubt what course to recommend his country- 
men. How the good should be secured, and the ill avoided, was 
the great question, and presented great difficulties. To refer it 
back to a new Convention, might jeopardize the whole, which was 
utterly inadmissible. His first advice, therefore, was that the nine 
States first acting upon it, should accept unconditionally, and thus 
secure whatever in it was wise and beneficial ; and that the four 
States last acting, should accept only on the previous condition, 
that certaui amendments should be made. But he afterwards re- 



268 LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

commended the more prudent course of unconditional acceptance 
by■^the whole, with a concomitant declaration, that it should stand 
as a perpetual instruction to their respective delegates, to endeavor 
to obtain such and such reformations. And this was the course 
finally adopted by a majority of the States. 

Much as has been said and written of Mr. Jeflerson's hostility to 
the Federal Constitution, there was not a person in America, who 
set a more solid value on it, even in its original form ; nor one who 
was impressed with more rational anxieties for its adoption. To 
estimate the force of his convictions upon this point, and the cogen- 
cy of his endeavors to instil the same convictions into his country- 
men, it is only necessary to consult the pages of his private corres- 
pondence. Adoring republicanism, hating monarchy, he discrim- 
inated, with the heart of a true American, and with the sagacity of 
a profound statesman, between those features of the instrument 
which were congenial, and those which were hostile, to the princi- 
ples of his political idolatry. While he gave all his soul to the pres- 
ervation of the former, he deprecated, v»'ith equal sincerity, any ad- 
mixture of the latter, neither approving nor condemning in the 
mass. He was, therefore, neither a fec'eralist nor an anti-federalist, 
as the advocates and opponents of the Constitution were distin- 
guished. He was a fearless and independent asserter of his opin- 
ions on questions of national concernmsnt, the most profound and 
interesting that had ever been submittel to the deliberation of the 
American people ; and he had the happ'ness to see those opinions, 
on almost every point, very soon adopted by the nation, and incor- 
porated into its frame of government, by special amendatory acts. 
A few passages from his correspondence will evince his anxiety for 
the fate of the Constitution, and his perseverance in the endeavor to 
obtain the amendments which he deemed so essential. 

To William Carmichael. — "The conduct of Massachusetts 
has been noble. She accepted the Constitution, but voted that it 
should stand as a perpetual instruction to her Delegates, to endeav- 
or to obtain such and such reformations ; and the minority, though 
very strong both in numbers and abilities, declared viritim and ser- 
iatim, that acknowledging the principle that the majority must give 
the law, they would now support the new Constitution with their 
tongues, and with their blood, if necessary. I was much pleased 
with many and essential parts of this instiiunent, from the begin- 
iiing. But I thought I saw in it many faults^ gieat and small. 



OP THOMAS JEFFERSON. 2()1> 

AYliat I have read and reflected, has brought me over from several 
of my objections, of the first moment, and to acquiesce under some 
others. Two only remain, of essential consideration, to wit. tlie 
want of a bill of rights, and the expunging the principle of necessa- 
ry rotation in the offices of President and Senator. '' * If the 
States which were to decide after her, should all do the same, it is im- 
possible but they must obtain the essential amendments. It will be 
more difficult, if \xe lose this instrument, to recover Avhat is good in 
it, than to correct what is bad, after we shall have adopted it. It 
has, therefore, my hearty prayers, and I wait with anxiety for news 
of the votes of Maryland, South Carolina, and Virginia." 

To E. RuTLEDGE. — "I cougmtulate you on the accession of 
your State to the new federal constitution. This is the last I have 
yet heard of, but I expect daily to hear that my own has followed 
'the good example, and suppose it is already estabhshed. Our gov- 
ernment wanted bracing. Still we must take care not to rvm from 
one extreme to another ; not to l^race too high. I own, I join those 
in opinion, who think a bill of rights necessary. I apprehend too. 
that the total abandonment of the principle of rotation in the offices 
of President and Senator, Avill end in abuse. But my confidence 
is, that there will, for a long time, be virtue and good sense enough 
in our countrymen, to correct abuses. We can surely boast of hav- 
ing set the world a beautiful example of a government reformed bv 
reason alone, without bloodshed. But the world is too far oppressed 
to profit by the example. On this side of the Atlantic, the blood of 
the people has become an inheritance, and those who fatten on it, 
will not relinquish it easily." 

To James Madison.^ — -"I sincerely rejoice at the iicceptance of 
our new constitution by nine States. It is a good canvass, on 
which some strokes only want retouching. What these are, I think 
are sufficiently manifested by the general voice from north to south, 
which calls for a bill of rights. It seems pretty generally under- 
stood, that this should go to juries, habeas corpus, standing ar- 
mies, printing, rehgion, and monopolies. I conceive there may lie 
difficulty in finding general modifications of these, suited to the 
habits of all the States. But if such cannot be foimd, then it is 
better to establish trials by jury, the right of habeas corpus, free- 
dom of the press, and freedom of religion, in all cases, and to abol- 
ish standing armies in time of peace, and monopolies in all cases, 
than not to do it in any. The few cases wherein these things may 
do evil, cannot be weighed against the raultitude, wherein the want 
of them will do evil." 

To G. Washington. — "I have seen, with infinite pleasure, our 
new constitution accepted by eleven States, not rejected by the 
twelfth • and that the thirteenth happens to be a State of the least 

U 



270 LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

importance. It is true, that the minorities in most of the accepting 
States have been very respectable ; so much so, as to render it pru- 
dent, were it not otherwise reasonable, to make some sacrifice to 
them. I am in hopes, that the annexation of a bill of rights to the 
constitution will alone draw over so great a proportion of the minor- 
ities, as to leave little danger in the opposition of the residue ; and 
that this annexation may be made by Congress and the Assemblies, 
without calling a convention, which might endanger the most val- 
uable parts of the system." 

To F. HoPKiNsoN. — " You say that I have been dished up to 
you as an anti-federalist, and ask me if it be just. My opinion was 
never worthy enough of notice, to merit citing ; but since you ask 
it, I will tell it to 5^ou. I am not a federalist, because I never sub- 
mitted the whole system of my opinions to the creed of any party 
of men whatever, in religion, in philosophy, in politics, or in any 
thing else, where I was capable of thinking for myself. Such an 
addiction is the last degradation of a free and moral agent. If I 
could not go to heaven but with a party, I would not go there at all. 
Therefore, I protest to you, I am not of the party of federalists. 
But I am much farther from that of the anti-federalists. I approv- 
ed, from the first moment, of the great mass of what is in the new 
constitution ; the consolidation of the government ; the organiza- 
tion into executive, legislative, and judiciary; the subdivisions of 
the legislative ; the happy compromise of interests between thfe 
great and little States, by the different manner of voting in the dif- 
ferent Houses ; the voting by persons instead of States ; the quali- 
fied negative on laws given to the executive, which, however, I 
should have hked better if associated with the judiciary also, as in 
INew-York ; and the power of taxation. * * * 

'• These, my dear friend, are my sentiments, by which you will 
see I was right in saying, I am neither federalist nor anti-federalist ; 
that I am of neither party, nor yet a trimmer between parties. 
These, my opinions, I wrote, within a few hours after I had read 
the constitution, to one or two friends in America. I had not then 
read one single word printed on the subject. I never had an opin- 
ion in politics or religion, which I was afraid to own. A costive re- 
serve on these subjects might have procured me more esteem from 
some people, but less from myself. My great w ish is, to go on in a 
strict, but silent performance of my duty : to avoid attracting notice, 
and to keep my name out of newspapers, because I find the pain of 
a little censure, even when it is unfounded, is more acute than the 
pleasure of much praise." 

To Col. Humphreys. — " The operations which have taken 
place in America lately, fill me with pleasure. In the first place, 
they realize the confidence I had, that, whenever our aflfairs go ob- 
viously wrong, the good sense of the people will interpose, and set 



OP THOMAS JEFFERSON". 271 

them to lights. The example of changing a constitution, by as- 
sembhng the wise men of the State, instead of assembhng armies, 
will be worth as much to the world as the former examples we bad 
given thorn. The constitution, too, which was the result of our de- 
liberations, is unquestionably the wisest ever yet presented to man^ 
and some of the accommodations of interest which it has adopted, 
are greatly pleasing to me, who have before had occasions of seeing 
how ditHcult those interests were to accommodate. A general con- 
currence of opinion seems to authorize us to say it has some defects. 
I am one of those who think it a defect, that the iinportant rights, 
not placed in security by the frame of the constitution itself, were 
not explicitly secured by a supplementary declaration. There are 
rights which it is useless to surrender to the governinent, and which 
governments have yet always been fond to invade. These are the 
rights of thinking, and pubhshing our thoughts by speaking or 
writing ; the right of free commerce ; the right of personal freedom. 
There are instruments for administering the government so pecu- 
liarly trust-worthy, that w^e should never leave the legislature at 
liberty to change them. The new constitution has secured these in 
the executive aud legislative departments ; but not in the judiciary. 
Jt should have established trials by the people themselves, that is to 
say, by jury. There are instruments so dangerous to the rights of 
the nation, and which place them so totally ^i (lie mviC}' ui tl.oir 
governors, that those governors, whether legislative or executive, 
should be restrained from keeping such instruments on foot, but in 
well defined cases. Such an instrument is a standing army. We 
are now allowed to say, such a declaration of rights, as a supple- 
ment to the constitution, where that is silent, is wanting, to secure 
us in these points. The general voice has legitimated this objec- 
tion. It has not, however, authorized me to consider as a real de- 
fect, what I thought, and still think one, the perpetual re-eligibility 
of the President. But three States out of eleven having declared 
against this, we must suppose we are wrong, according to the fun- 
damental law of every society, the le.v majoi-is jjartis, to which we 
are bound to submit. And should the inajority change their opin- 
ion, and become sensible that this trait in their constitution is wrong, 
I would wish it to remain uncorrected, as long as we can avail our- 
selves of the services of our great leader, whose talents and whose 
weight of character, I consider as peculiarly necessary to get the gov- 
ernment so under way, as that it may afterwards be carried on by 
subordinate characters." 

The ardor and perseverance of ]Mr. Jefferson in the effort to ob- 
tain a supplementary Bill of Rights to the Constitution, Avere soon 
crowned with success. At the session of 1789, Mr. Madison sub- 
mitted to Congress a series of amendments, which, with various 
propositions on the same subject from other States, were referred 



'>7'i 



LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 



to a committee of one from each State in the Union. The result 
was the annexation, in due form, of the ten original amendments 
to our Federal Constitution. So great was the influence of Mr. 
Jellerson in forwarding this measure, though absent during the 
whole time, that he is universally regarded as the father of these 
amendments. They embraced the principal objections urged by 
him, without going far enough to satisfy him entirely. By them, 
the freedom of religion, of speech, and of the press, the right of the 
people to deliberate and petition for redress of grievances, the right 
of keeping and bearing arms, of the trial by jury in civil as well as 
criminal cases, the exemption from general warrants, and from the 
quartering of soldiers in private dwellings, were pronounced irrevo- 
cable and intangible by the government ; and the powers not dele- 
gated by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, were 
declared to be reserved to the States or to the people. But the right 
of habeas corpus was still left to the discretion of Congress ; mo- 
nopolies were not positively guarded against ; and standing armies 
in time of peace were not prohibited. His objections, also, against 
the perpetual re-etigibility of the President, although backed by the 
recommendation of three States, were not sanctioned by Congres-s. 
His fears of that feature were founded on the importance of the of- 
lice, on the fierce contentions it might excite among ourselves, if 
continuable for life, and the dangers of interference, either with 
money or arms, by foreign nations, to whom the choice of an Amer- 
ican President might become interesting. Examples of this 
abounded in history ; in the case of the Roman Emperors, for in- 
stance ; of the Popes, while of any significance ; of the German 
Emperors ; the Kings of Poland, and the Deys of Barbary. But his 
apprehensions on this head gradually subsided, and finally l^ecame 
entirely removed, on witnessing the effect in practice. Alluding to 
his early opinions on this subject, he said in 1821 : 

" My wish was, that the President should be elected for seven 
years, and be ineligible afterwards. This term I thought suflicient 
to enable him, with the concurrence of the Legislature, to carry 
through and establish any system of improvement he should pro- 
pose for the general good. But the practice adopted, I think, is bet- 
ter, allowing his continuance for eight years, with a liability to be 
dropped at half way of the term, making that a period of prol>a- 
tion. * * * The exanrple of four Presidents, voluntarily retir- 
ing at the end of their eighth year, and the progress of public opin^ 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 273 

ioa, that the principle is sakitary, have given it in practice tlie force 
of precedent and usage ; insomuch, tliat should a President consent 
to be a candidate for a third election, I trust he would be rejected, 
on this demonstration of ambitious views." 

There was another question agitated in the Councils of the 
United States, during Mr. Jefferson's residence in France, which 
he viewed with as much concern as the adoption of the Constitu- 
tion. This was the proposition to abandon the navigation of the 
Mississippi to the King of Spain, lor the period of twenty-five or 
thirty years, as an equivalent for a treaty of commerce with that 
nation. John Jay, Secretary of foreign affairs, who had been au- 
thorized to institute a negotiation with the Spanish government, 
laid the proposition before Congress, as a secret. The whole atfair 
was veiled in midnight darkness, and so continued until the year 
1818, when a resolution was passed authorizing the pubhcation 
of the secret journals of the old Congress. 

The proposition of Mr, Jay created an angiy excitement in Con- 
gress. The scheme was resisted, with greath warmtli, by tlie 
States of Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Maryland and 
Georgia, on the following grounds : 1. It would dismember the 
Union. 2. It would violate the compact of the national govern- 
ment with those States, who had surrendered to it their western 
lands. 3, It would check the growth of the western country by 
depriving the inhabitants of a natural outlet for their productions. 
4. It would depreciate the value of the western lands, and sink 
proportionally a valuable fund for the payment of the national 
debt. 5. It would be such a sacrifice for particular purposes, as 
would be obvious to the most undiscerning. 

The proposition was sustained by all the New England States, 
wuth New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. These States 
moved in solid phalanx, and in mysterious silence, against every 
attempt to defeat, alter, or amend the proposed terms of negotiation. 
The opposition were in despair, when it occurred to them, that as 
the assent of nine States was necessary by the Confederation to 
form treaties, the instructions given to Mr. Jay were unconstitution- 
al, inasmuch as seven States only had voted them. A resolution 
was, therefore, introduced declaring the original vote which had 
been taken, incompetent to confer treaty making powers. But the 
resolution was negatived by the same States, in the same mysteri- 

24* 



274 LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

ous silence. A resolution was tlien ofl'ered, to remove the injunc- 
tion of secrecy, whicii shared the same fate. Finally, after a heat- 
ed and protracted altercation, the minority succeeded so far as to 
obtain the authority to treat for an entrepot at New Orleans, and 
for the navigation of the Mississippi in common with Spain, down 
to the Florid as. 

A hint of these transactions having reached the ears of Mr. Jef- 
ferson, in Paris, he was exercised with the greatest inquietude and 
alarm. He considered the abandonment of the navigation of the 
Mississippi, as, ipso facto, a dismemberment of the Union ; and he 
improved every occasion, in his letters to America, to impress on 
the leading members of the government, the ungrateful character 
and suicidal tendency of the measure. A single specimen, found 
in a letter to Mr. Madison, dated January 30, '87, will suffice to 
display the general tenor of an active and extensive correspondence, 
for several months, on this vitally interesting question. 

" If these transactions [insurrections] give me no uneasiness, I 
feel very dilTerently at another piece of intelligence, to wit, the 
possibility that, the navigation of the Mississippi may be abandoned 
to Spain. I never had any interest westward of the Allegany ; 
and I never will have any. But I have had great opportunities of 
knowing the character of the people who inhaljit that country ; 
and I will venture to say, that the act which abandons the naviga- 
tion of the Mississippi, is an act of separation between the eastern 
and western country. It is a relinquishment of five parts out of 
eight of the territory of the United States ; an abandoment of the 
fairest subject for the payment of our public debts, and the chaining 
those debts on our own necks, in 2)erpetuum. I have the utmost 
confidence in the honest intentions of those who concur in this 
measure ; but I lament their want of acquaintance with the char- 
acter and physical advantages of the people, who, right or wrong, 
will suppose their interests sacrificed on this occasion to the con- 
trary interests of that part of the confederacy in possession of pres- 
ent power. If they declare themselves a separate people, we are 
incapable of a single effort to retain them. Our citizens can never 
be induced, either as militia or as soldiers, to go there to cut the 
throats of their own brothers and sons, or rather, to be themselves* 
the subjects, instead of the perpetrators, of the parricide. Nor 
would that country quit the cost of being retained against the will 
of its inhabitants, could it he done. But it cannot be done. They 
are able already to rescue the navigation of the Mississippi out of 
the hands of Spain, and to add New Orleans to their own territory. 
They will be joined Ijy the inliabitants of Louisiana. This will 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 275 

bring on a vrar between them and Spain ; and that will produce 
the question with us, whether it will not be worth our while to 
become parties with them in the war, in order to re-unite them 
with us, and thus correct our error. And were I to permit ray 
forebodings to go one step further, I should predict, that the inhab- 
itants of tile United States would force their rulers to take the af- 
firmative of that question. I wish I may be mistaken in all these 
opinions." 

The right of the United States to the free navigation of the Mis- 
sissippi, in its whole extent, and the establishment of that right 
upon an immovable basis, was a subject which early engaged the 
attention of Mr. Jefterson. It was one of those enterprises of vast 
national utility, w4iich seemed to match his patriotism, and to sum- 
mon all his powers into action. He persevered in the effort, through 
a period of fifteen years, in dificrent public stations ; and his agen- 
cy in producing the final result, was scarcely less distinguished, 
though less direct and efficacious, than in accomplishing the splen- 
did achievement of the acquisition of Louisiana. The question 
was not definitively settled until 1803, when, being at the head of 
the nation, he appointed Mr. Monroe minister to Madrid, for the 
express purpose of concluding a final arrangement with that gov- 
ernment, covering all the points at issue growing out of the sub- 
ject. The mission was as honorable as it was successful. 

Mr. Jefferson's watchfulness over the interests of America, while 
in Europe, exceeds all calculation. Nothing escaped his notice, 
which he thought could be made useful in his own country. The 
southern States are indebted to him for the introduction of the cul- 
ture of upland rice. In 1790, he procured a cask of this species 
of rice, from the river Denbigh, in Africa, about latitude 9 deg. 
30 min. north, which he sent to Charleston, in the hope that it 
would supersede the culture of the wet rice, which renders South 
Carolina and Georgia so pestilential through the summer. The 
quantity was divided at Charleston, and a part sent to Georgia, by 
his directions. The cultivation of this rice has now become gen- 
eral in the upper parts of Georgia and South Carohna, and is 
highly prized. It was supposed by Mr. Jefferson, that it might be 
grown successfully in Tennessee and Kentucky. He also endeav- 
oured to obtain the seed of the Cochin-China rice, for the purpose 
of introducing its cultivation in the same States ; but it does not 
appear whether he was successful or not. In the same spirit of 



276 LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

unremitting attention to the interests of his infant country, he traijs- 
mitted from Marseilles to Charleston, a great variety of olive plants, 
for experimenting their growth in South Carolina and Georgia. 
" The greatest service," says he, " which can be rendered any coun- 
try is, to add an useful plant to its culture ; especially a bread 
grain ; next in value to bread, is oil." These plants Avere tried, 
and are now flourishing at the south ; although not yet multiplied 
extensively, they will be the germ of that invaluable species of cul- 
tivation in those States. 

AH the powers of Mr. Jefferson seemed to kindle in the pursuit 
of multiplying objects of profitable agriculture in America, and of 
improving the husbandry of those already established as staples. 
With this patriotic view, he made a tour into the southern parts of 
France, and the northern of Italy, in which he passed three months, 
mingling private gratification with services of the highest public 
utility. His plan was to visit the ports along the Avestern and 
southern coast of France, particularly Marseilles, Bordeaux, Nantes, 
and L'Orient, to obtain such information as would enable him to 
judge of the practicability of making further improvements in our 
commerce with the southern provinces of Fiance ; to visit the ca- 
nal of Languedoc, and possess himself of such information in that 
species of navigation, as might be useful to communicate to his 
countrymen ; and thence to pass into the northern provinces of 
Italy, to examine minutely the different subjects of culture in those 
munificent regions, to ascertain what improvements might be made 
in America, in the culture and husbandry of rice and other staples 
common to both countries ; and, if any, what other productions of 
that climate, might be advantageously introduced, as articles of do- 
mestic grovv'th, into the southern States. Another object with him 
was, to try the mineral waters of Aix, in Provence, for a dislocated 
wrist, unsuccessfully set, in pursuance of the advice of his sur- 
geon. 

He left Paris, therefore, on the 28th of Febuary, '87, and pro- 
ceeded up the Seine, through Champagne and Burgundy, and 
down the Rhone through the Beaujolais, by Lyons, Avignon, Nis- 
mes, to Aix. Receiving, on trial, no benefit from the mineral wa- 
ters of that place, he bent his course into the rice countries of Italy, 
taking his route by Marseilles Toulon, Hieres, Nice, across the Col 
de Tende, by Coni, Turin, Vercelh, Novara, Milan, Pavia, Novd, 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSOX. 277 

Genoa. Thence returning, he passed along the coast, by Savona, 
Noh, Albenga, Onegha, Monaco, Nice, Antibes, Frejus, Aix. Mar- 
seilles, Avignon, Nismes, Montpellier, Frontignan, Sette, Agde, and 
along the canal of Languedoc, by Beziers, Narhonne, Carcassonne, 
Castelnaudari, through the Son terrain of St. Feriol, and back by 
Castelnaudari, to Toulouse ; thence to Montauban, and down the 
Garonne by Langon, to Bordeaux. Thence to Rochelbrt, la Ro- 
chelle, Nantes, L'Orient ; then back by Rennes to Nantes, and up 
the Loire, by Angers, Tours, Amboise, Blois, to Orleans; thence 
direct to Paris, where he arriv^ed on the 10th of June, Soon after 
returning from this journey, he was joined by his younger daugh- 
ter, Maria, from Virginia, the youngest having died some time be- 
fore. 

Mr. Jefferson was impressed with delightful sensations in trav- 
ersing the luxurious provinces of iSouthern France, where the 
choicest blessings of heaven are spread in profusion before the eye; 
but his mind assumed a gloomy and contemplative mood, on 
visiting the storied grounds of Italy, where the richest munificence 
of nature is blasted by the hand of tyranny, and the ruins of clas- 
sic grandeur enhance the melancholy contrast, at every step. He 
travelled incognito, and insinuated himself into every position, 
from which he might derive a knowledge of the inhabitants, their 
manners, and modes of living, their implements of husbandry and 
dairy, their inventions and improvements in these arts, their farms, 
productions, their wants and superfluities, their means and degree 
of happiness, and causes of misery. The novelty and variety of 
the scenes through which he passed^ the multitude of curious 
and interesting objects which he encountered, presented a perpet- 
ual feast to his enquiring mind ; nor could they fail to impart the 
most desirable lessons to the philosophei-, the philanthropist, and 
the statesman of unvitiated principles. From Nice, under date of 
April 19th, he writes to the Marquis de La Fayette : 

" I am constantly roving about to see what I have never seen 
before, and shall never see again. In the great cities, I go to see 
w4iat travellers think alone worthy of being seen ; but I make a 
job of it, and generally gulp it all dow^n in a day. On the other 
hand, I am never satiated w ith rambling through the fields and 
farms, examining the culture and cultivators with a degree of curi- 
osity, which makes some take me to be a fool, and others to be much 
wiser than I am. * * * From the first olive fields of 



278 LIFE, WRITINGS, ANO 3PINIOK3 

Pierrelatte, to the orangeries of Hieves, has been continued rapture 
to me. I have often wished for you. I think you liave not made 
this journey. It is a pleasure you liave to come, and an improve- 
ment to be added to tlie many you have ah'eady made. It will be 
a great comfort to you. to know, from your own inspection, the 
c<)ndition of all the provinces of your own country, and it will be 
interesting to them at some future day, to be known to you. This 
is, periiaps, the only moment of your hfe, in which you can acquire 
tiiat knowledge. And to do it most efiectually, you must be abso- 
lutely i/icoQ'nito, you must ferret the people out of their hovels, as 
I have done, look into their kettles, eat their bread, loll on their 
beds under pretence of resting yourself, but in fact to find if they 
are soft. You will feel a sublime pleasure in the course of this in- 
vestigation, and a sublimer one hereafter, when you shall be able 
to apply your knowledge to the softening of their beds, or the 
throwing a morsel of meat into their kettle of vegetables." 

From Lyons to Nismes Mr. JefTerson was ' nourished with the 
remains of Roman grandeur.' He Avas immersed in antiquities 
from morning to night. He was transported back to the times of 
the Ca?sars, the intrigues of their courts, the oppressions of their 
praetors, and prefects. To him the city of Rome seemed actually 
existing in all the magnificence of its meridian glory ; and he was 
iiiled with alarm in momentaiy anticipation of the irruptions of 
the Goths, Visigoths, Ostrogoths, and Vandals. Under date of 
Nismes, he writes to the Countess de Tesse, in a mood, which 
illustrates the extravagance of his passion for ancient architecture : 

'■ Here I am. Madam, gazing whole hours at the Maison Quar- 
ree, like a lover at his mistress. The stocking-weavers and silk- 
spinners around it, consider me as a hypochondriac Englishman, 
about to write with a pistol the last chapter of his history. This 
is the second time I have been in love since I left Paris. The 
first was with a Diana at the Chateau de Lay-Epinaye in Beau- 
jolais, a delicious morsel of sculptiu'e. by M. A. Slodtz. This, you 
will say, wat> in rule, to fall in love with a female beauty : but 
with a house ! It is out of all precedent. No, Madam, it is not 
v.'itliout a precedent, in my own history. V/hile in Paris, I was 
violently smitten with the Hot(jl.de >Salm, and used to go to the 
Tuiicries, almost daily, to look at it. The loiieuse des chaises, 
inattentive to my passion, never had the complaisance to place a 
chair there, so that, sitting on the parapet, and twisting my neck 
roimd to see the object of my admiration. I generally left it with a 
torticollis.''^ 

Mr. Jefierson kept a diary of his excursion into Italy, in which 
he noted, with minuteness, every circumstance, which he thought 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 279 

might be made useful or insti-iictive to his countrymen. Of these 
notes, which covered about filly printed octavo pages, he made 
copies, on his return, and transmitted them.to General Washington 
and others in America, as containing hints capable of being im- 
proved in their minds to the benefit of the United States. Hip 
course of observations supplied him with materials for benefiting 
the commerce of the United States, in some essential particulars, 
■for improving the quality in articles of staple growth, and increas- 
ing the subjects of cultivation, in some States. At Turin, Milan, 
and Genoa, he satisfied himself of the practicability of introducing 
our whale oil, for their consumption, and that of the other great cities 
of that country. The merchants with whom he asked conferences, 
met him freely, and communicated frankly ; but not being au- 
thorized to conclude a formal negotiation, he could only prepare a 
general disposition to receive our oil merchants. On the article of 
tobacco, he was more in the possession of his ground ; and put 
matters into a train for inducing their government to draw their 
tobacco directly from the United States, and not, as heretofore, from 
Great Britain. He procured the seeds of three diflferent species of ricCy 
from Piedmont, Lombardy, and the Levant, divided each quantity 
into three separate parcels, and forwarded them by as many dif- 
ferent conveyances, to Charleston, in order to ensure a safe arrival. 
He questioned the utility of engaging in the cultivation of the vine 
in the southern States, under the present circumstances of their 
population. Wines were so cheap in those countries, that a labor- 
er with us, employed in the culture of any other article, might ex- 
change it for wine, more and better than he could raise himself. 
It might, hereafter, become a profitable resource to us ; when the 
increase of population shall have increased our productions beyond 
the demand for them at home and abroad. Instead of augment- 
ing the useless surplus of them, the supernumerary hands might 
then be employed on the vine. The introduction of the fig, the 
mulberry, and the ohve, he strongly recommended to the cultiva- 
tors in the southern parts of the United States. With the olive 
tree, in particular, he was so smitten, that he declared it next to 
the most precious, if not the most precious of all the gifts of heav- 
en to man. He thought, perhaps, it might claim a preference even 
to bread, considering the infinitude of vegetables, to which it ren- 
dered a proper and comfortable nourishment. In a letter to Wil- 



280 LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

liam Drayton, piesident of the Agiicultuial Society in South Car- 
olina, written on his return from his excursion, he says : 

'• This is an article, the consumption of which will always keep 
pace with its production. Raise it ; and it begets its own demand. 
Little is carried to America, because Europe has it not to spare. 
We therefore have not learned the use of it. But cover the southern 
States with it, and every man will become a consumer of oil, with- 
in whose reach it can l)e brought, in point of price. If the mem- 
ory of those persons is held in great respect in South Carolina, who 
introduced there the culture of rice, a plant which sows life and 
death, with almost equal hand, what obligations would be due to 
him who should introduce the olive tree, and set the example of its 
culture ! Were the owner of slaves to view it only as the means 
of bettering their condition, how much would he better that, by 
planting one of those trees for every slave he possessed ! Having 
been myself an eye-witness to the blessings which this tree sheds 
on the poor, I never had my wishes so kindled for the introduction 
of any article of new culture into our own country. South Caro- 
lina and Georgia appear to me to be the States, wherein its success,- 
in favorable positions at least, could not be doubted, and I flattered 
myself, it would come within the views of the society for agricul- 
ture, to begin the experiments wdiich are to prove its practicability." 

As in commerce and agriculture, so in the manufacturing inter- 
est, Mr. Jefferson was indefatigable in endeavoring to benefit the 
rivalship of America with the Eastern continent. Of every new 
invention and discovery in the arts, he was prompt to communi- 
cate the earliest intelligence to Congress, or to individual artists and 
professors. Among these, the most remarkaljle were, the principle 
of stereotyping, which he communicated in 1786 ; and the mode of 
constructing muskets upon the plan of Mr. Whitney, of New- Ha- 
ven, which he communicated about the same time. It consisted in 
making all the parts of the musket so exactly alike, as that, mixed 
together promiscuously, any one part should serve equally for every 
musket in the magazine. Of those improvements which were 
claimed as original in Europe, but of which America was entitled 
to the merit of a prior discovery, his knowledge enabled him to de- 
tect the imposition, and his patriotism incited him to vindicate the 
honor of his own countrymen. This was in fact the case in sev- 
eral instances. 

In the sciences and the fine arts, Mr. Jefferson was equally assid- 
uous to advance the reputation of his rising country. His letters to 
President Stiles, to the president of William and Mary College^ to 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 281 

the president of Harvard Universit}^, to Rittenhouse, Charle? 
Thompson, and others, are splendid ilkistrations of his zeal and effi- 
ciency in these pursuits. As a mark of the high estimation in 
which his literary services in Europe, were held in this country, b.e 
received from Harvard University, in 1789, a diploma conferring 
on him the Do(Jtorate of Laws. In a letter to Dr. Willard, return- 
ing his acknowledgments for the honor, he thus concludes: '• It is 
for such institutions as that over which you preside so worthily, Sir, 
to do justice to oiu' country, its productions, and its genius. It is the 
work to which the young men, whom you are forming, should lay 
their hands. We have spent the prime of our lives in procuring 
them the precious blessing of liberty. Let them spend theirs in 
showing that it is the great parent of science and of virtue ; and that 
a nation will be great in both, always in proportion as it is free. 
NolDody wishes more warmly for the success of your good exhorta- 
tions on this subject, than he who has the honor to be, with senti- 
ments of great esteem and respect, Sir, your most obedient, humlile 
servant." 

Their advances in science, and in the arts of sculpture, painting 
and music, were the only things, he declared, for which he envied 
the people of France ; and for these he al)solutely did envy them. 
His passion for the few remains of ancient architecture which ex- 
isted, was unbounded ; and his efforts unremitting, for introducing 
samples of them in America, for the jDurpose of encouraging a style 
of architecture analogous to the Roman model. In June, 1785, he 
received a request from the Directors of the public buildings in Vir- 
ginia, to procure and transmit them plans for the capitol, palace. 
&c. He immediately engaged an architect of capital abilities, for 
this piupose, and directed him to take for his model the Maison 
Quarree of Nismes, which he considered 'the most precious and 
perfect morsel of antiquity in existence.' But what was hi&surprise 
and regret on learning, a short time after, that the buildings were 
actually begun, without waiting for the receipt of his plans. ' Pray 
try, he writes to Mr. Madison, if you can effect the stopping of this 
work. The loss is not to be weighed against the saving of money 
which will arise, against the comfort of laying out the public mon- 
ey for something honorable, the satisfaction of seeing an object and 
proof of national good taste, and the regret and mollification of erect- 
ing a monument of our barbarism, which will be loaded with exe- 

25 



282 LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

orations as long as it shall endure. You see I am an enthusiast 
on the subject of the arts. But it is an enthusiasm of which I am 
not ashamed, as its-object is to improve the taste of my countrymen, 
to increase their reputation, to reconcile to tliem the respect of the 
world, and procure them its praise.' 

How thoroughly and wonderfully American was the heart of 
Mr. Jefferson. The specimens we have given exhil)it but a slender 
outline of a series of correspondence, public and private, comprising 
more than three hundred letters, chiefly to his friends in the United 
States, all breathing the same unslumlDcring devotion to the inter- 
ests of his country, in every imaginable department, from the most 
intricate points of abstract science, and the most momentous ques- 
tions of national policy, down to ingenious essays on the most sim- 
ple processes in agriculture and housewifery. He was, at the same 
time, in habits of correspondence with many distinguished charac- 
ters, literary and pohtical, in most of the nations of Europe. His 
philosophical reputation and powers established him in ready favor 
with the constellation of bold thinkers, which then illuminated 
France ; and much of his attention was necessarily, perhaps ad- 
vantageously, occupied in the metaphysical discussions of the day. 
He was on terms of intimacy with the Abbe Morellet, Condorcet, 
D'Alembert, Mirabeau, <fec. ; and he renewed his discussion, in 
natural science, with Mons. de Buffon, to whom he had already 
given such a foretaste of his abilities, in his Notes on Virginia. 
The ladies of that gay capital, who maintain so powerful an as- 
cendency in all its circles, delighted in his society, and impressed 
him into their correspondence. His letters to some of them, which 
have been lately published, are masterpieces of imaginative compo- 
sition.* At the solicitation of the authors of the Encyclopedie 
Methodiqtie, the most popular work then publishing in Paris, Mr. 
Jefferson prepared for insertion several articles on the United States, 
giving a history of the government of the Confederation, from its 
origin to the adoption of the Constitution. One of the authors 
of that work had made the society of the Cincinnati, the subject 
of a libel on our government, and its great military leader. But 
before committing it to the press, he submitted it to Mr. Jeffer- 
son, for examination. He found it a tissue of errors, a mere phil- 



See Appendix, Note C. 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 283 

ipic against the institution, in which there appeared an utter ignor- 
ance of facts and motives. He wrote over the whole article ; in do- 
ing which he vindicated the motives of General Washington, and his. 
brother officers, from ev^ery hability to reproach. His own opinions, 
however, of the ultimate effects of that institution^ underwent such 
a change, during his residence in Europe, as induced him to recom- 
mend its total e?ctinction. In a letter to General Washington, dated 
Paris, November 14, 1786, he thus writes : 

" What has heretofore passed between us on this institution, 
makes it my duty to mention to you, that I have never heard a per- 
son in Europe, learned or unlearned, express his thoughts on this 
institution, who did not consider it as dishonorable and destructive 
to our governments ; and that eveiy writing which has come out 
since my arrival here, in which it is mentioned, considers it, even as 
now reformed, as the germ whose development is one day to destroy 
the fabric we have reared. I did not apprehend this, while I had 
American ideas only. But I confess that what I have seen in Eu- 
rope, has brought me over to that opinion ; and that though the day 
may be at some distance, beyond the reach of our lives perhaps, yet 
it will certainly come, when a single fibre left of this institution will 
produce an hereditary aristocracy, which ^WU change the form of 
our governments from the best to the worst in the world. To know 
the mass of evil which flows from this fatal source, a person must 
be in France ; he must see the finest soil, the finest climate, the 
most compact state, the most benevolent character of people, and 
every earthly advantage combined, insufficient to prevent this 
scourge from rendering existence a cmse to twenty-four out of twen- 
ty-five parts of the inhabitants of this country. With us, the branch- 
es of this institution cover all the States. The southern ones, at 
this time, are aristocratic al in their dispositions : and that that spirit 
should grow and extend itself, is within the natural order of things. 
I do not flatter myself with the iimnortality of our governments : but 
I shall think little also of their longevity, unless this germ of de- 
struction be taken out. When the society themselves shall weigh 
the possibility of evil, against the impossibility of any good to pro- 
ceed from this institution, I cannot help hoping they will eradicate 
iti I know they wish the permanence of our governments, as 
much as any individuals composing them." 

Such are some of the extraordinary and diversified services per- 
formed by Mr. Jefferson in his private, unofficial capacity. The 
circumstance ought not to be overlooked, that these attentions to the 
general interests of the United States, were exercised amidst the 
labors and anxieties of a multiplicity of public avocations. His di- 
plomatic correspondence with the Count de Vergennes, the most 



284 trFE, WRITING.^, AND OPINIONS 

subtle and powerful Minister in all Europe, was almost daily, and 
in point of spirit and urgency in behalf of America, clearly im rival- 
ed. His correspondence Avith the bankers of the United States, at 
Amsterdam and Paris, to preserve the credit of the United States, 
was constant, and laljorioiis ; and his exertions for the redemption 
of American captives at Algiers, for establishing a general coalition 
of all the civilized Powers against the piratical States, and, on fail- 
ure of that, for negotiating treaties of peace with them, on the most 
favorable terms, are unprecedented in the history of diplomatic af- 
fairs. 

But of all the private labors of Mr. Jetlerson, in behalf of his 
country, none were more useful, none more praiseworlh}^ and patri- 
otic, than those which were directed to the moral improvement of 
the rising generation. It was to them he looked, and not to those 
then on the stage, for the perfection of the glorious political work 
which he had exhausted every resource, and 'sacrificed every com- 
fort, in advancing ; and his ambition appeared insatiable to fashion 
their minds, their habits, their tastes and principles, after the model 
of the incorruptible generation of '76. His letters addressed to sev- 
eral young men of Virginia, in whose studies and future pursuits he 
felt a particular interest, are among the most valuable parts of hi^ 
private correspondence. The following, addressed to Peter Carr, 
will suffice as a specimen. 

'•I received by Mr. Mazzei, your letter of April the 20th. I am 
much mortified to hear that you have lost so much time ; and that 
when you arrived in Williamsburgh, you were not at all advanced 
from what you were when you left Monticello. Time now begins 
1.0 be precious to you. Every day you lose, will retard a day your 
entrance on that public stage whereon you may begin to 1)e useful 
to yourself. However, the way to repair the loss is to improve the 
future time. I trust, that with your dispositions, even the actjuisi- 
tion of science is a pleasing employment. I can assure you, that tlie 
possession of it is, what (next to an honest heart) will above all things 
render you dear to your friends, and give you fame and promotion 
in your own country. When your mind shall be weW improved 
with science, nothing will be necessary to place you in the highest 
point of view, but to pursue the interests of your country, the inter- 
ests of your friends, and your owit interests also, with the purest in- 
tegrity, the most chaste honor. The defect of these virtues can nev- 
er be made up by all the other acquirements of body and mind. 
Make these then your first object. Give up money, give up fame, 
give up science, give the earth itself and all it contains, rather than 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 285 

do an immoral act. And never suppose, that in any possible situa- 
tion, or mider any circumstances, it is best for you to do a dishonor- 
able tiling, however slightly so it may appear to you. Whenever 
you are to do a thing, though it can never be known but to your- 
self, ask yourself how you would a,ct were all the world looking at 
you, and act accordingly. Encourage all your virtuous dispositions, 
and exercise them Avhenever an opportunity arises ; being assured 
that they will gain strength by exercise, as a hmb of the body does, 
and that exercise will make them habitual. From the practice of 
(lie purest virtue, you may be assured you will derive the most sub- 
lime comforts in every moment of life, and in the moment of death. 
If ever you find yourself environed with difficulties and perplexing 
circumstances, out of which you are at a loss how to extricate your- 
self, do what is right, and be assured that that will extricate you 
the best out of the worst situations. Though you cannot see, when 
you take one step, what will be the next, yet follow truth, justice, 
and plain dealing, and never fear their leading you out of the laby- 
rinth, in the easiest manner possible. The knot which you thought 
a Gordian one, will untie itself before you. Nothing is so mistaken 
as the supposition, that a person is to extricate himself from a diffi- 
culty by intrigue, by cliicanery, by dissimulation, by trimming, by 
an untruth, by an injustice. This increases the difficulties ten fold ;_ 
and those who pursue these methods, get themselves so involved at 
length, that they can turn no way but their infamy becomes more 
exposed. It is of great importance to set a resolution, not to be 
shaken, never to tell an untruth. There is no vice so mean, so piti- 
ful, so contemptible ; and he who permits himself to tell a lie once, 
finds it much easier to do it a second and third time, till at length 
it becomes habitual ; he tells lies without attending to it. and truths 
without the world's believing him. This falsehood of the tongue 
leads to that of the heart, and in time depraves all its good disposi- 
tions. 

" An honest heart being the first blessing, a knowing head is the 
second. It is time for you now to begin to be choice in your read- 
ing, to begin to pursue a regular course in it, and not to suffer your- 
self to be turned to the right or left by reading any thing out of that 
course. I have long ago digested a plan for you, suited to the cir- 
cumstances in which you will be placed. This I will detail to you, 
from time to time, as you advance. For the present, I advise you • 
to begin a course of ancient history, reading every thing in the origi- 
nal and not in translations. First read Goldsmith's History of 
Greece. This will give you a digested view of that field. Then 
take up ancient history in the detail, reading the following books ui 
the following order : Herodotus, Thucydides, Xenophontis Helleni- 
ca, Xenophontis Anabasis, Airian, Q,uintus Curtius, Diodorus Sicu- 
lus, Justin. This shall form the first stage of your historical read- 
ing, and is all I need mention to you now. The next, will be of 

25* 



286 LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

Roman history. From that we will come down to modern history. 
In Greek and Latin poetry, you have read or will read at school, 
Virgil, Terence, Horace, Anacreon, Theocritus, Homer, Euripides, 
Sophocles. Read also Milton's Paradise Lost, Shakspeare, Ossian, 
Pope's and Swift's works, in order to form your style in your own 
language. In morality, read Epictetus, Xenophpntis Memorabilia, 
Plato's Socratic dialogues, Cicero's philosophies, Antoninus, and 
►Seneca. In order to assure a certain progress in this reading, con- 
sider what hours you have free from the school and the exercises of 
the school. Give about two of them every day to exercise ; for 
health must not be sacrificed to learning. A strong body makes 
the mind strong. As to the species of exercise, I advise the gun. 
While tliis gives a moderate exercise to the body, it gives boldness, 
enterprise and independence to the mind. Games played with the 
ball, and others of that nature, are too violent for the body, and 
stamp no character on the mind. Let your gu)i, therefore, be the 
constant companion of your walks. Never think of taking a book 
with you. I'he object of walking is to relax the mind. You 
should, therefore, not permit yourself even to think while you walk ■, 
but divert your attention by the objects surrounding you. Walking 
is the best possible exercise. Habituate yourself to walk very far. 
The Europeans value themselves on having subdued the horse to 
the uses of man ; but I doubt whether we have not lost more than 
we have gained, by the use of this animal. No one has occasion- 
ed so much the degeneracy of the human body. An Indian goes 
on foot nearly as far in a day, for a long journey, as an enfeebled 
white does on his horse ; and he will tire the best horses. There 
is no habit you will value so much as that of walking far with- 
out fatigue. I would advise you to take your exercise in the after- 
noon ; not because it is the best time for exercise, for certainly it is 
not ; but because it is the best time to spare from your studies ; and 
habit will soon reconcile it to health, and render it nearly as useful 
as if you gave to tliat the more precious hours of the day. A little 
walk of lialf an hour in the morning, when you first rise, is advisa- 
ble also. It sliakes ofl' sleep, and produces other good elTects in the 
animal economy. Rise at a fixed and an early hour, and go to bed 
at a fixed and early hour also. Sitting up late at night is injurious 
to the health, and not usefid to the mind. Having ascribed proper 
hours to exercise, divide what remain (I mean of your vacant 
hours) into three portions. Give the principal to History, the other 
two, which should be shorter, to Philosophy and Poetry. Write to 
me every month or two, and let me know the progress you make. 
Tell me in what manner you employ every hour in the day. The 
plan 1 have proposed for j'ou is adapted to your present situation on- 
ly. When that is changed, I shall propose a corresponding change 
of plan, "^ * * You are now, I expect, learning French. You 
must push this ; because the books which will be put into your 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 2S7 

hands when you advance into Mathematics, Natural Philosophy, 
Natural History, ifc,c., will be mostly French ; these sciences being 
better treated by the French than the English writers. Our future 
c-onnection with Spain renders that the most necessary of the modern 
languages, after the French. When you become a public man, 
you may have occasion for it, and the circumstance of your possess- 
ing that language may give you a preference over other candidates. 
I have nothing farther to add for the present, but husband well 
3'our time, cherish your instructors, strive to make every body your 
friend ; and be assured that nothing will be so pleasing, as your suc- 
cess, to, dear Peter, yours aflectionately." 

It was Mr. Jefferson's fortune to be an eye-witness of the opening 
scenes of that tremendous Revolution, which began so gloriously, 
and ended so fatally for France. The immediate and exciting 
cause of this ill-fated struggle for political reformation, he ascribes 
to the influence of the American example, and American ideas. 
In his notes on that interesting event, he says : 

" The American Revolution seems first to have awakened the 
thinking part of the French nation, in general, from the sleep of 
despotism into which they were sunk. The officers, too, wlio had 
been to America, were mostly young men, less shackled by habit 
and prejudice, and more ready to assent to the suggestions of com- 
mon sense, and feeling of common lights, than others. They came 
back to France with new ideas and impressions. The press, not- 
withstanding its shackles, began to disseminate them ; conversa- 
tion assumed new freedoms ; politics became the theme of all soci- 
eties, male and female ; and a very extensive and zealous party 
was formed, wdiich acquired the appellation of the Patriotic party, 
who, sensible of the abusive government under which they lived, 
sighed for occasions for reforming it. This party comprehended 
all the honesty of the kingdom, sufficiently at leisure to think, 
the men of letters, the easy Bourgeois, the young nobility, partly 
from reflection, partly from mode ;: for these sentiments became 
matter of mode, and, as such, united most of the young women to 
the party." 

The part sustained by Mr. JefTerson in the early stages of the 
French Revolution, was of a weighty and prominent character. 
It has not yet been incorporated into written history, but the late 
revelation of his cabinet to the world, will soon place it there, when 
it will constitute one of the most interesting features of his posthu- 
mous leputation. 

Possessing the confidence and intimacy of the leading patriots, 
and more than all, of the Marcjuis de La Fayette, their head and 



288 LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

Allai5, he was consulted by them, at every step, on all measures of 
importance ; and the prudence and prophetic wisdom of his coun- 
sels, which weie implicitly followed while they could have the ben- 
efit of them, retarded the moment of convulsion and civil war, un- 
til after his withdrawal from the scene of action. Being from a 
country which had successfully passed through a similar struggle, 
his acquaintance was eagerly sought by them, and his opinions 
carried with them an authority almost oracular. In attempting the 
redress of present grievances, he recommended a mild and gradual 
reformation of abuses, one after another, at suitable intervals, so as 
not to revolt the concihatory dispositions of the King ; and in pro- 
viding against their recurrence in future, by remodeling the prin- 
ciples of the government, he recommended cautious approaches to 
republicanism, to give time for the grov^th of public opinion, and 
work a peaceable regeneration of the political system, by slow and 
successive improvements, through a series of years. The interest 
which he felt in the passing revolution, and his anxiety for the 
final result, were inconceivably great. He considered a successful 
reformation of government in France, as insuring a general refor- 
mation through Europe, and the resurrection to a new life of their 
people, now ground to dust by the oppressions of the constituted 
powers. He went daily from Paris to Versailles, to attend the de- 
bates of the States General, and continued there generally, until 
the hour of adjournment. This Assembly had been convened, as 
a mediatorial power between the government and the nation ; and 
it was well understood, that the King would now concede, 1, Free- 
dom of the person by habeas corpus ; 2, Freedom of conscience ; 
3, Freedom of the press ; 4, Trial by jury ; 5, A representative 
legislature ; 6, Annual meetings ; 7, The origination of laws ; 
8, The exclusive right of taxation and appropriation ; and 9, The 
responsibility of ministers. Mr. Jefferson urged, most strenuously, 
an immediate compromise, upon the basis of these concessions ; 
and their instant adjournment for a year. They came from the 
very heart of the King, who had not a wish but for the good of the 
nation ; and these improvements, if accepted and carried into effect, 
he had no doubt would be maintained during the present reign, 
which would be long enough for them to take some root in the 
constitution, and be consolidated by time and the attachment of 
the nation. The following letter, addressed to one of the leaders 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 289 

of the States General, conveys his advice, in an emphatic manner, 
accompanied by a Charter of Rights, prepared by himseh" on the 
basis of the King's propositions : 

" After you quitted us 3'esterday evening, we continued our con- 
versation (Monsieur de la Fayette, Mr. Short, and myself) on tlie 
subject of the difficulties which environ you. The desiroble object 
being to secure the good which the King has olTered, and to a\oid 
the ill which seems to tiu'eatcn, an idea was suggested, which ap- 
pearing to make an impression on Monsieur de La Fayette, I was 
encouraged to pursue it on my return to Paris, to put it into form, 
and now to send it to you and him. Is is this ; that the King, 
in a seance royule, should come forward with a Charter of Rights 
in his hand, to be signed by himself and by every member of the 
three orders. This charter to contain the five great points which 
the Residtat of Uecem!)er ottered on the part of the King : the 
abolition of pecuniary privileges offered by the privileged orders. 
and the adoption of the national debt, and a grant of the sum of 
money asked from the. nation. Tins last will be a cheap price for 
the preceding articles ; and let the same act declare your immedi- 
ate separation til! the next anniversary meeting. You will carry 
back to your constituents more good than ever was effected before 
without violence, and you will stop exactly at the point v.here vio- 
lence would othervv'ise begin. Time will be gained, tlio public 
mind will continue to ripen and to he. informed, a basis of support 
may be prepared with the people themselves, and expedients occur 
for gaining still something further at your next meeting, and for 
stopping again at the point of force. I have ventured to send your- 
self and Monsieur de La Fayette a sketch of my ideas of what 
this act might contain, without endangering any dispute. But it 
is offered merely as a canvass -for you to work on, if it be fit to 
work on at all. I know too little of the subject, and you know too 
much of it, to justify me in offering any thing but a hint. I have 
done it, too, in a hurry : insomuch, that since committing it to 
writing, it occurs to me that the fifth article may give alarm ; that 
it is in a good degree included in. the fourth, and is, therefore, use- 
less. But after all, what excuse can I make, Sir, for tliis presump- 
tion. I have none but an unmeasuraljle love for your nation, and 
a painful anxiety lest despotism, after an unaccepted offer to bind 
its own hands, should seize you again with tenfold fury.'' 

The Cbarter of Rights accompanying the above letter was a 
judicious compromise between republicanism and monarchy. It 
was to have been signed by the King, and every member of the 
Assembly, individually, in his presence. The rights which it con- 
templated, embraced the ultimate point, in the opinion of Mr. Jef- 
ferson, to which the patriots could go in safety, without producing 



290 LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

violence ; and with the possession of these powers, he most eager- 
ly and eloquently contended they could obtain, in future, whatev- 
er might be further necessary to improve their constitution, and 
perfect their freedom and happiness. " They thought otlierwise, 
however," says he, " and events have proved their lamentable error. 
For, after thirty years of war, foreign and domestic, the loss of 
millions of lives, the prostration of private happiness, and the foreign 
subjugation of their owai country for a time, they have obtained no 
more, nor even that securely. They were unconscious of (for who 
could foresee ?) the melancholy sequel of their w^ell-meant persever- 
ance ; that their physical force would be usurped by a first tyrant 
to trample on the independence, and even the existence, of other 
nations ; that this would afford a fatal example for the atrocious 
conspiracy of Kings against their people ; would generate their 
unholy and homicide alliance to make common cause among them- 
selves, and to crush, by the power of the whole, the efforts of any 
part, to moderate their abuses and oppressions." 

In the evening of August 4tli, on motion of the Viscount de 
Noailles, brother-in-law^ of La Fayette, the Assembly abolished all 
titles of rank, all the abusive privileges of feudalism, the tythes and 
casuals of the clergy, all provincial privileges, and, in fine, the feu- 
dal regimen generally. Many days were employed in putting into 
the form of laws, the numerous revocations of abuses ; after which, 
they proceeded to the preliminary work of a Declaration of Rights. 
An instm)nent of this kind had been prepared by Mr. Jefferson 
and La Fayette, and submitted to the Assembly by the latter, on 
the 11th of July ; but the sudden occurrence of acts of violence, 
had suspended all proceedings upon it. There being much con- 
cord of opinion on the elements of this instrument, it was liberally 
framed, and passed with a very general approbation. They then 
appointed a committee to prepare a projet of a Constitution ; at the 
head of which was the archbishop of Bordeaux. From him, in 
the name of the committee, Mr. Jefferson received a letter, request- 
ing him to attend and assist at their deliberations. But he excused 
himself, on the obvious considerations, that his mission was to the 
King, as Chief Magistrate of the nation, that his duties were limi- 
ted to the concerns of his own country, and forbade his intermed- 
dling with the internal transactions of France, w^here he had been 
received under a specific character only. 



OF TH03IAS JEFFERSON. 291 

The plan of the Constitution was discussed in sections, and so 
reported from time to time, as agreed to by the committee. The 
principles of the general frame of the government, proposing the 
division of its powers into three departments, executive, legislative, 
and judiciary, were accepted with great unanimity. But when 
they proceeded to subordinate developments, many and various 
shades of opinion came into conflict, and broke the patriots into 
fragments of very discordant principles. The questions, Whether 
the king should have a negative on the laws ? whether that nega- 
tive should be absolute, or suspensive only ? whether there should 
be two chambers of legislation, or one only ? if two, should one of 
them be hereditary ? or for life? or for a fixed term only? whether 
named by the king, or elected by the people ? These questions 
encountered strong diflferencies of opinion, and produced repulsive 
combinations among the patriots. The aristocracy were cemented 
by a common principle of preserving the ancient regime, or whatever 
should be nearest to it. Making this their polar star, they moved 
in phalanx, gave preponderance to the minorities of the patriots, 
-and always to those who advocated the least change. 

In this critical state of things, Mr. Jefferson received a note from 
the Marcjuis La Fayette, informing him that he should bring a 
party of six or eight friends, to ask a dinner of him the next day. 
He assured him of their welcome. When they came, there were 
La Fayette himself and seven others, leaders of the different frag- 
ments of the reform party, but honest men, and sensible of the 
necessity of effecting a coalition by mutual sacrifices. Their ob- 
ject in soliciting this conference, was to avail themselves of the 
counsel and mediation of the American minister, to effect a recon- 
ciliation upon the terms which he should decide. The discussions 
began at the hour of four, and were continued till ten o'clock in 
the evening ; during which Mr. Jefferson was witness to a ' cool- 
ness and candor of argument unusual in political conflicts, to a 
logical reasoning, and a chaste eloquence, disfigured by no gaudy 
tinsel of rhetoric or declamation, which he thought worthy of being 
placed in parallel with the finest dialogues of antiquity, as handed 
to us by Xenophen, by Plato, and Cicero.' 

The result of this conference decided the fate of the French 
Constitution. It was mutually agreed, on the advice of Mr. Jef- 
ferson, that the King should have a suspensive veto on the laws ; 



292 LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

that the Legislature should he composed of a single hody only ; 
and that it should be chosen by the people. This concordat uni- 
ted the patriots on a common ground. They all rallied to the prin- 
ciples thus settled, carried every question agreeably to them, and 
reduced the aristocracy to impotence and insignificance. 

But duties of exculpation were now incumbent upon Mr. JefTer- 
son. He waited the next morning on Count Montmorin, Minis- 
ter of foreign aifairs, and explained to him, with truth and candor, 
how it happened that his house had been made the scencc of con- 
ferences of such a character. Montmorin tcld him he already 
knew every thing which had passed ; that so far from taking um- 
brage at his conduct on that occasion, he earnestly wished he would 
habitually assist at such conferences, being satisfied he would 1)6 
useful in moderating the warmer spirits, and promoting a whole- 
some and practicable reformation only. Mr. Jefferson told him he 
knew too well the duties he owed to the King, to the nation, and 
to his own country, to take any part in the transactions of their inter- 
nal government ; and that he should persevere, with care, in the 
character of a neutral and passive spectator, with wishes only, and 
very sincere ones, that those measures- might prevail, which would 
be for the greatest good of the nation. " I have no doubt, indeed," 
says Mr. Jefferson, " that this conference was prenously known 
and approved by this honest minister, who was in confidence and 
communication with the patriots, and washed for a reasonable re- 
formation of the constitution." 

At this auspiciotis stage of the French Revolution, Mr. Jefferson 
retired from the scene of action ; and the wisdom and moderation 
of his counsels ceased with the opportunities of imparting them. 
He left France, with warm and unabated expectations, that no se- 
rious connnotion would take place, and that the nation would soon 
settle down in the quiet enjoyment of a mass of liberations, to go 
on improving its condition, in future, by future and successive amel- 
iorations, but never to retrograde. The example of the United States 
had been viewed as their model on all occasions, and with an au- 
thority like that of the bible, open to explanation, but not to (|ues- 
tion. The King had now become a passive machine in the hands 
of the National Assembly, and had he been left to himself, would 
unquestionably have acquiesced in their determinations. A wise 
constitution would have been formed, hereditary in his line, hirn- 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 293 

self placed at its head, with powers so large as to enable him to ex- 
ecute all the good of his station, and so limited as to restrain him 
from its abuse, Tliis constitution he would have faithfully admin- 
istered, and more than this he never wished. Such was the belief 
and the hope of Mr. Jefferson ; and to one, mortal source, he as- 
cribed the overthrow of all these fond anticipations, and the deluge 
of crimes and cruelties which subsequently desolated France. To 
the despotic and disastrous influence of a single woman, he attribu- 
ted the horrible catastrophe of the French Revolution ! 

" But he had a Q.ueen of absolute sway over his weak mind and 
timid virtue, and of a character the reverse of his in all points. 
This angel, as gaudily painted in the rhapsodies of Burke, with 
some smartness of fancy, but no sound sense, was proud, disdainful 
of restraint, indignant at all obstacles to her will, eager in the pur- 
suit of pleasure, and firm enough to hold to her desires, or perish in 
their wreck. Her inordinate gambling and dissipations, with those 
of the Count d'Artois, and others of her clique, had been a sensible 
item in the exhaustion of the treasury, which called into action the 
reforming hand of the nation ; and her opposition to it, her inflexi- 
ble perverseness, and dauntless spirit, led herself to the Guillotine, 
drew the King on with her, and plunged the world into crimes and 
calamities which will for ever stain the pages of modern history. I 
have ever beheved, that had there been no Queen, there would 
have been no Revolution. No force would have been provoked, nor 
exercised. The King would have gone hand in hand with the 
wisdom of his sounder counsellors, who, guided by the increased 
lights of the age, wished only, with the same pace, to advance the 
principles of their social constitution. The deed which closed the 
mortal course of these sovereigns, I shall neither approve nor con- 
demn. I am not prepared to say, that the first magistrate of a na- 
tion cannot commit treason against his countr)^, or is unamenable 
to its punishment : nor yet, that where there is no written law, no 
regulated tribunal, there is not a law in our hearts, and a power in 
our hands, given for righteous employment in maintaining right, 
and redressing wrong. Of those who judged the King, many 
thought him wilfully criminal ; many, that his existence would 
keep the nation in perpetual conflict with the horde of Kings, who 
would war against a regeneration which might come home tot hem- 
selves, and that it were better that one should die than all. I should 
not have voted with this portion of the legislature. I should have 
shut up the Queen in a convent, putting harm out of her power, 
and placed the King in his station, investing him with limited 
powers, which, I verily believe, he would have honestly exercised, 
according to the measure of his understanding. In this vray, no 
void would have been created, courting the usurpation of a military 

26 



294 LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

adventurer, nor occasion given for those enormities which demoral- 
ized the nations of the world, and destroyed, and is yet to destroy, 
millions and millions of its inhabitants." 

Mr. Jefferson had been more than a year soliciting leave to return 
to America, with a view to place his daughters in the society of their 
friends, to attend to some domestic ariangements of pressing mo- 
ment, and to resume his station for a short time, at Paris ; but it was 
not until the last of August that he received the permission desired. 

The generous tribute which he has paid to the French nation, 
at this point, in his auto-biographical notes, displays at one view, the 
state of feehng with which he quitted a country, where he had 
passed so various, useful, and delightful a portion of his public Ufe. 

"And here I cannot leave this great and good country, without 
expressing my sense of its pre-eminence of character among the 
nations of the earth. A more benevolent people I have never known,^ 
nor greater warmth and devotedness in their select friendships. 
Their kindness and accommodation to strangers is unparalleled, 
and the hospitahty of Paris is beyond any thing I had conceived to 
be practicable in a large city. Their eminence, too, in science, the 
communicative dispositions of their scientific men, the politeness of 
the general manners, the ease and vivacity of their conversation, 
give a charm to their society, to be found no where else. In a com- 
parison of this with other countries, we have the proof of primacy, 
which was given to Themistocles after the battle of Salamis. Ev- 
ery general voted to himself the first reward of valor, and the second 
to Themistocles. So, ask the travelled inhabitant of any nation,. 
In what country on earth would you rather live ? — Certainly, in my 
own, where are all my friends, my relations, and the earliest and 
sweetest aflections and recollections of my life. Which would be 
your second choice 1 France." 

On the 26th of September, 17S9, Mr. Jeflferson left Paris for 
America. He was detained at Havre by contrary winds, until the 
8th of October, when he crossed over to Cowes, where he was agairi^ 
detained by contrary winds, until the 22d, when he embarked, and 
landed at Norfolk, Virginia, on the 23d of November. On his way 
to Monticello, he passed some days at Eppington, in Chesterfield 
county, the residence of his friend and connection, Mr. Eppes ; and 
Avhile there, he received a letter from the President, GeneralWash- 
ington, by express, covering an appointment of Secretary of State 
to the new government. Gratifying as was this Ijjgh testimony of 
his public estimation, the highest in the power of the President to 
confer, he nevertheless received it Avith real regret. His wish had 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 



295 



been to return to Paris, where he had left his household establish- 
ment, to see the end of the Revolution, which he then thought 
would be certainly and happily closed in less than a year, and to 
make that tbe epoch of his retirement from all public employments, 
" I then meant," says he, 'Ho return home, to withdraw from politi- 
cal life, into which I had been impressed by the circumstances of the 
times, to sink into the bosom of my family and friends, and devote 
myself to studies more congenial to my mind.'' In a letter to Mr. 
Madison, a short time before leaving Paris, he writes : " You ask 
me if I would accept any appointment on that side of the water? 
You know the circumstances which led me from retirement, step 
by step, and from one nomination to another, up to the present. 
My object is a return to the same retirement. When, therefore, I 
quit the present, it will not be to engage in any other office, and 
most especially any one which would require a constant residence 
from home." In a letter to another friend in Virginia, the same 
sentiment is pursued : " Your letter has kindled all the fond recol- 
lections of ancient times ; recollections much dearer to me than any 
thing I have known since. There are minds which can be pleas- 
ed by honors and preferments ; but I see nothing in them but envy 
and enmity. It is only necessary to possess them, to know how 
little they contribute to happiness, or rather how hostile they are to 
it. No attachments soothe the mir.d so much a,S thoSG CGuiractea 
in early life ; nor do I recollect any societies which have given me 
more pleasure, than those of which you have partaken with me. I 
had rather be shut up in a very modest cottage, with my books, my 
family, and a few old friends, dining on simple bacon, and letting 
the world roll on as it liked, than to occupy the most splendid post, 
which any human power can give." 

In his answer to the President, under date of December 15th, he 
expressed these dispositions frankly, and his preference of a return 
to Paris ; but assured him, at the same time, that if it w^as beheved 
he could be more useful in the administration of the government, 
he would sacrifice his own inclinations, without hesitation, and re- 
pair to that destination. He arrived at Monticello, on the 23d of 
December, where he received a second letter from the President, ex- 
pressing his continued wishes that he would accept the Department 
of State, if not absolutely irreconcilable with his inclinations. This 
silenced his reluctance, and he accepted the new appointment. He 



296" LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

left Monticello on the 1st of March, 1790, arrived at New- York, the 
then seat of Government, on the 21st, and immediately entered on 
the duties of his station. 

In the short interval which he passed at Monticello, his eldest 
daughter was married to Thomas M. Randolph, eldest son of the 
Tuckahoe branch of Randolphs. He was a young gentleman of 
genius, science, and honorable mind, who afterwards filled a digni- 
fied station in the General Government, and, at length, the execu- 
tive chair of Virginia, v.'ith credit, for a number of years. 



CHAPTER X. 

Mr. Jeflferson's arrival at the seat of government, in tlie charac- 
ter of Secretary of State, completed the organization of the first 
national administration under the present Constitution of the Uni- 
ted States. The new system had been in operation about one year. 
George Washington had been unanimously elected President, and 
inaugurated on the 30th of April, 1789. John Adams was Vice 
President ; Alexander Hamilton, Secretary of the Treasury ; Hen- 
ry KriG::, Secretary Oi "vVur ; and Edmund Randolph, Attorney 

General. 

Of this cabinet, it is matter of historical notoriety, that Alexan- 
der Hamilton was the Ajax Telemon. To a mind of extraordin- 
ary endowments, he united the unlimited confidence of the Presi- 
ident, during the first stages of his executive action, which, aided 
by a series of fiscal operations, enabling him to insinuate his power 
into both branches of the legislature, gave him a preponderating 
and almost irresistable influence jn directing the measures of the 
Administration. But his political opinions, Avitli such advanta- 
ges of personal ascendency, rendered him a dangerous minister, at 
the crisis of the birth of our present government. The political 
characters of the Secretary of the Treasury, and the Vice Presi- 
dent, are drawn with a powerful and discriminating hand, by Mr. 
Jeflferson, in his private memoranda of that period. 

" Hamilton was not only a monaichist, but for a monarchy bot- 
tomed on corruption. In proof of this, I will relate an anecdote, 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 297 

for the truth of which I attest the God who made me. Before the 
President set out on his southern tour in April, 1791, he addressed 
a letter of the fourth of that month, from Mount Vernon, to the 
Secretaries of State, Treasury, and War, desiring that if any seri- 
ous and important cases should arise during his absence, they 
would consult and act on them. And he requested that the Vice 
President should also be consulted. This was the only occasion 
on which that oflicer was ever requesled to take part in a cabinet 
question. Some occasion for consultation arising, I invited those 
gentlemen (and the Attorney General as well as I remember,) to 
dine with tne, hi order to confer on the subject. After the cloth 
was removed, and our question agreed and dismissed, conversation 
began on other matters, and, I)y some circumstance, was led to the 
British Constitution, on which Mr. Adams observed, ' Purge that 
constitution of its corruption, and give to its popular branch equality 
I represenlation, and it would be the most perfect constitution 
ever devised by the wit of man.' Hamilton paused and said, 'Purge 
it of its corruption, and give to its popular branch equality of rep- 
resentation, and it would become an impracticable government ; 
as it stands at present, with all its supposed defects, it is the most 
perfect government which ever existed.' And this was assuredly 
the exact line which separated the political creeds of these two 
gentlemen. The one was for two hereditary branches and an hon- 
est elective one ; the other for an hereditary King, with a House of 
Lords and Commons corrupted to his will, and standing between 
him and the people. Hamilton was, indeed, a singular character. 
Of acute understanding, disinterested, honest, and honorable in all 
private transactions, amiable in society, and duly valuing virtue in 
private life, yet so bewitched and perverted by the British example, 
as to be under thorough conviction that corruption was essential to 
the government of a nation. 

- " Mr. Adams had originally been a republican. The glare of 
royalty and nobility, during his mission to England, had made 
him believe their fascination a necessary ingredient in government ; 
and Shays's rebellion, not sufficiently understood where he then 
was, seemed to prove that the absence of want and oppression, was 
not a sufficient guarantee of order. His book on the American 
Constitutions having made known his political bias, he was taken 
up by the monarchical federalists in his absence, and, on his re- 
turn to the United States, he was by them made to believe that the 
general disposition of our citizens was favorable to monarchy. He 
here wrote his Davila, as a supplement to the former work, and his 
election to the Presidency confirmed him in his errors. Innumera- 
ble addresses too, artfully and industriously poured in upon him, 
deceived him into a confidence that he was on a pinnacle of popu- 
larity, when the gulph was yawning at his feet, which was to 
swallow up him and his deceivers. For Avhen General Washing- 

26* 



298 - LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

ton was withdrawn, these encrgumeni of royalism, kept m check 
bitherlo by the dread of his honesty, his firmness, his patriotism, 
and the authority of his name, now mounted on the car of State 
and free from control, hke Phaeton on that of the sun, drove head- 
long and wild, looking neither to right nor left, nor regarding any 
thing but the objects they were driving at ; until, displaying these 
fully, the eyes of the nation were opened, and a general disband - 
ment of them from the public councils took place." 

The following note of a conversation with Mr. Hamilton, dated 
August 13th, 1791, presents a more favorable view of his senti- 
ments, and seems due to him as a matter of justice. 

" Alexander Hamilton condemning Mr. Adams' writings, and 
most particularly Davila, as having a tendency to weaken the pres- 
ent government, declared in substance as follows : ' I own it is my 
own opinion, though I do not publish it in Dan or Beersheba, tha'. 
the present government is not that which will answer the ends of 
society, by giving stability and protection to its rights, and that it 
will probably be found expedient to go into the British form. How- 
ever, since we have undertaken the experiment, I am for giving it 
a fair course, whatever my expectations may be. The success, 
indeed, so far, is greater than I had expected, and therefore^ at pres- 
ent, success seems more possible than it had done heretofore, and 
there are still other and other stages of improvement, which, if the 
present does not succeed, may be tried, and ought to l>e tried, before 
we give up the republican form altogether ; for that mind must be 
really depraved, which would not prefer the equality of political 
rights, which is the foundation of pure republicanism, if it can Ije 
obtained consistently with order. Therefore, whoever by his wri- 
tings disturbs the present order of things, is really blameable, how- 
ever pure his intentions may be, and he was sure Mr. Adams' were 
pure.' This is the substance of a declaration made in much more 
lengthy terms, and which seemed to be more formal than usual for 
a private conversation between two, and as if intended to quaUfy 
some less guarded expressions which had been dropped on former 
occasions. Th. Jefferson has committed it to writing in the mo- 
ment of A. Hamilton's leaving the room." 

The Secretary of War, General Knox, w^as a gentleman of gi-eat 
military reputation, but wedded to the splendor, the pompous parade 
and ceremonies of royalty, to which he had been trained by mili- 
tary habit. He is understood to have proposed to General Wash- 
ington, to decide the question of a monarchical or a republican gov ■ 
crmnent, by his army, before its disbandment, and to assume 
himself the crown, on the assurance of their support. The indig-- 
uation with which the Commander in Chief rejected jhis liberticide- 



OP THOMAS JEFFERSON. 299 

proposition, was equally worthy his virtue and wisdom. His next 
proposition was the establishment of an hereditary order, in the name 
of the Cincinnati, in which he succeeded. 

Such were the strong monarchical elements which entered into 
the composition of General Washington's cabinet. Against this 
weight of opinion, Mr. Jefferson constituted the great republican 
check, and the only one, except on some occasions of support from 
the Attorney General. What were the scenes of trial, of mortifi- 
cation, of anguish, and indignity, through which he was called to 
pass ? They have not yet fully penetrated the veil of secrecy ; nor 
is it probable history will ever be able to do justice to the political con- 
flicts of that day. The developments, however, which have been 
lately made, have thrown a flood of light upon them. They were 
conflicts of principle, between the advocates of republican, and those 
of kingly government, and had not the former, with their acknowl- 
edged leader, put forth the unmeasured and unceasing efforts which 
they did, our government would have been, at an early day, a very 
different thing from what the success of those efforts has made it. 
His first entrance upon the political stage, at New York, discov- 
ered to him a state of affairs which w41l appear almost incredible 
at the present day. 

" Here, certainly, I found a state of things which, of all I had 
ever contemplated, I the least expected. I had left France in the 
first year of her revolution, in the fervor of natural righls, and zeal 
for reformation. My conscientious devotion to these rights could 
not be heightened, but it had been aroused 'and excited by daily 
exercise. The President received me cordially, and my colleagues 
and the circle of principal citizens, apparantly Avith welcome. The 
courtesies of dinner parties given me, as a stranger newly arrived 
among them, placed me at once in their familiar society. But I 
cannot describe the wonder and mortification with which the table 
conversations filled me. Politics were the chief topic, and a pre- 
ference of kingly over republican government, was evidently the 
favorite sentiment. An apostate I could not be, nor yet a hypo- 
crite, and I found myself, for the most part, the only advocate on 
the republican side of the question, unless among the guests there 
chanced to be some member of that party from the legislative 
Houses. Hamilton's financial system had then passed. It had 
two objects ; 1, as a puzzle, to exclude popular understanding and 
inquiry ; 2, as a machine for the corruption of the legislature : for 
he avowed the opinion, that man could be governed by one of two 
motives only, force or interest :. force, he observed, in this country. 



300 " LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

M^as out of the question, and the interests, therefore, of the mem- 
bers must be laid hold of, to keep the let,nslature in unison with 
the executive. And with grief and shame it nuist be acknov/ledg- 
ed, that his machine was not without effect ; that even in this, the 
birth of our government, some members were found sordid enough 
to bend their duty to their interests, and to look after peisonal 
rather than public good." 

Hamilton's financial system, considered as a w^hole, comprehend- 
ed three great operations, which were carried through in the order 
in which they are mentioned. 1. The funding the debts of the 
Union, foreign and domestic, upon certain principles recommended 
by him. 2. The assumption, by the United States, of the debts of 
the several States, and the funding of these also, upon similar prin- 
ciples. 3d. The estabhshment of a National Bank. The first of 
these measures had passed when Mr. Jefferson arrived at the seat 
of government. Some acquaintance, however, with its general 
principles, and those of the financial system generally, is requisite 
to an intelhgible estimate of his opinions, and of the causes of op- 
position to the Hamiltonian administration. 

It is well known that during the war, the greatest difficulty we 
experienced, was the want of money or means to pay the soldiers 
who fought our battles, or the farmers, manufacturers, and mer- 
chants who furnished them the necessary supplies of food and 
clothing. After the expedient of paper money had exhausted it- 
self, certificates of debt were given to the individual creditors, with 
assurances of payment, so soon as the United States should be 
able. But the distresses of these people often obliged them to part 
with their certificates for the half, the fifth, and even the tenth of 
their value. This state of things produced a greedy and desolating 
career of speculation, all over the country ; and the speculators 
made a trade of cozening the public securities from the holders, by 
the most fraudulent practices and persuasions that they would nev- 
er be paid. But this species of gambling in the public paper, at 
the expense of the poor and honest creditors of the government, 
would have prevailed to a limited extent only, had not the government 
itself encouraged and sanctioned it by a deliberate act. It then 
became swindling on a large and legalized scale. In the bill for 
funding and paying the domestic debt, Hamilton made no distinc- 
tion between the original holders, and the fraudulent purchasers of 
the public securities. Great and just disapprobation arose at put- 



OF l-HOMAS JEFF^ERSON/ 301 

ting these two classes of creditors on the same footing", and power- 
ful exertions were made to pay the former the full value, and the 
latter, the price only which they had paid, with interest. But this 
righteous discrimination, by closing the door to corruption, would 
have defeated the fundamental purpose of Hamilton, which was 
as honest as it Y»'as wrong; for he had avow^ecl the behef that man 
could be governed only l^y force or corruption, and surel}'^, no man 
ever Avent more ingeniously to work to reduce his theory to prac- 
tice. No one can imagine the torrent of corruption let loose in 
Congress, and the st-iiiuilus given to the out-door joljbing and 
speculating herd, on tlic defeat of the discriminating proposition 
of Mr. Madison. AVhen the trial of strength, on this and other 
efforts, had indicated the form in which the bill would finally pass, 
the mercenary scramble began. Couriers and relay-horses by land, 
and swift sailing pilot-boats by sea, were %ing in all directions. 
Active partners and agents were associated and employed in every 
State, town and village, and the public paper bought up at five 
shillings, and even as low as two shillings in the pound, before the 
holder knew that Congress had provided for'its redemption at par. 
Immense sums were thus filched from the poor and ignorant, and 
fortunes accumulated in a moment, by the dexterity of a political 
leader. Who can wonder at the overwhelming monied influence 
which Hamilton raised in his favor, by such an adroit disposition 
of more than forty millions of dollars, the estimated amount of the 
domestic debt of the Union ? 

This scheme was over, and another on the tapis at the moment 
of Mr. Jefferson's arrival. This fiscal operation is well known by 
the name of the Assumption, Independently of the proper debt 
of the Union, the States had, during the war, contracted separate 
and heavy debts ; and these expenses, whether \A'ie>ely or foolishly 
incurred, were claimed to have been incurred for general purposes, 
and ought therefore to be reimbursed from the general purse. No- 
body knew the nature of these debts, their amount, or their proofs. 
No matter ; we will guess. Nobody knew hov/ much should be re- 
imbursed to one State, or how much to another. No matter ; we 
will guess. Thus another scramble was set a going among the sev- 
eral States, and somegot much, so)ne little, "some nothing. But 
an additional lever of twenty-millions of dollars, was put into 
the hands of the Secretary of the Treasury, for bringing the legis- 



\. 



\ 



302- LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

lative in subservience to the executive power, and working the ma- 
diine of government according to the maxims of the monarchical 
school. 

The Assumption question created the most bitter contests ever 
known in Congress, before or since the union of the States. The 
principal grounds on which tliQ measure was resisted, were its un- 
constitutionality, and its tendency to destroy the sovereignty of the 
States, by engulphing them in the vortex of consolidation. The 
discussions, on both sides, were tempestuous ; and the bill is indebt- 
ed for its final passage, to the pacificatory intervention of Mr. Jeflcr- 
s5on, a step into which he was most ignorantly and innocently sedu- ^ 
ced. He arrived in the midst of the debates ; but, a stranger to the 
ground, a stranger to the actors, and as yet unaware of the object of 
the measure, he took no concern in it. The great and trying ques- 
tion, however, was lost in the House of Representatives. This pro- 
duced a state of things, which exacted from him a duty, on the per- 
formance of which, he was made to believe, depended the preserva- 
tion of the Union. Nor, in fact, were the probabilities of such a con- 
sequence very apochryphal. So high were the feuds excited, that 
on the rejection of the bill, business was suspended. Congress met 
and adjourned from day to day, without doing any thing, such 
was the implacability of the parties. The eastern members partic- 
ularly, with Smith of South Carolina, threatened a secession and 
dissolution, unless the measure should be adopted. Hamilton was 
in despair. He went to Mr. Jefferson, and exerted an eloquence, 
which was seldom exerted in vain. He painted pathetically, the 
temper into which the Legislature had been wrought ; the disgust 
of those who were called the creditor States ; the danger of the se- 
cession of their members, and the separation of the States. He ob- 
served that the officers of the Administration ought to act in concert ; 
that though this question was not of the State department, yet a 
common duty should make it a common concern ; that the Presi- 
dent was the centre on which all administrative questions ultimately 
rested, and that his ministers should all rally around him, and sup- 
lX)rt, with joint efforts, the measures approved by him ; and that 
the question having been lost by a small majority only, it was prob- 
able the timely appeal of Mr. Jefferson, to the judgment and discre- 
tion of some of his friends, would ellect a change in the vote, and 
the action of the government, now suspended, be again renewed. 



OP THOMAS JEFFERSON. 303 

In reply, Mr. Jefferson remarked, that he was really a stranger to 
the whole subject ; that not having yet informed himself of the 
system of finance adopted, he knew not how far the present meas- 
ure was a necessary supplement ; but that, if its rejection endanger- 
ed a dissolution of the Union, at this incipient stage, he should deem 
such a catastrophe the most dreadful of all consequences ; to avert 
which, all partial and temporary evils should be yielded. He there- 
fore proposed to Hamilton to dine with him the next day, when he 
would invite two or three of his own political friends, and bring 
diem into amicable conference and consultation. The discussion 
took place at Mr. Jefferson's house ; in which himself sustained no 
part but that of exhortation to mutual concession. It was finally 
agreed, that whatever importance was attached to the rejection of the 
proposition, the preservation of the Union was infinitely more im- 
portant, and that therefore, the vote of rejection should he rescinded ; 
to effect which some members should be prevailed on to change 
their votes. There had been a proposition to establish the seat of 
government either at Philadelphia or Georgetown ; and it was 
thought, that by giving the location to Philadelphia for ten years, 
and to Georgetown permanently afterwards, such an accommoda- 
tion would be administered as would quiet the opposition of a suffi- 
cient number. 'vTwo of the Potomac members, accordingly, 
changed their votes, but with a revulsion of feeling almost suffoca- 
ting. And Hamilton, on his part, undertook to carry the proposi- 
tion for removing the seat of government ; which, his influence 
over the eastern members, with that of Robert Morris, over those of 
the Middle States, enabled him to effect without difficulty. Mr. 
Jefferson could never afterwards contemplate with satisfaction, his 
agency in this corrupt transaction, although he had been urged to it 
by the purest of all motives, and had restrained it to a character 
strictly palliative and mediatorial.* 

The passage of the Assumption threw a vast accession of power 
into the Treasury, and made its chief the master of every question in 
the Legislature, which was calculated to give to the government 
the direction suited to his political views. But still the organization 
was incomplete ; and Hamilton, who was outwitted by few states- 
men practicing upon the same theory, had the sagacity to perceive 

* Jcffei son's Ana. 



304- LIFE, wraTiNGs, and opinions 

it. The eflect of the funding system, and of the assumption, would 
be temporary ; it would l)e lost with the loss of the individual mem- 
bers whom it had enriched ; and some engine of more permanent 
influence must be contrived, while the present majority continued in 
place, to carry it through all opposition. This engine was the Bank 
of the United States. 

The history of this transaction is better Icnown. The measure 
was strenuously opposed on the groiuid of its unconstitutionality. 
It was conceded on all hands that no express power for this purpose 
was given by tlie constitution ; but it was contended, that a fair 
construction of the phrase, ' to make all laws which shall be neces- 
sary and proper for carrying into execution the enumerated powers,' 
authorized the adoption of any measure which Congress should 
think necessary and proper. On the other hand it was urged, that 
this power Avas not only not granted, but expressly reserved by the, 
clause providing, that ' all powers not delegated to the United States, 
nor prohibited to the States, were reserved to the States or to the peo- 
ple.' As a further evidence against the supposed authority of im- 
plication, it was observed, that in the convention which framed 
the Constitution, a proposition to confer this power was made and 
negatived. 

When the law was presented to the President for his signature, 
he deemed the constitutional question of so great importance, that 
he took the unusual method of requesting the written opinions 
of his cabinet on the suliject. These opinions were accordingly 
given in. Those of the Secretaries of the Treasury, and of War, 
were in favor of the constitutionality of the act ; those of the Sec- 
retary of State, and Attorney General, were against it. The follow- 
ing is the opinion of Mr. Jetferson. It is an unanswerable argument 
against the doctrine of implied powers, and is justly considered 
the text of the true repul^lican faith, on the subject of constitutional 
interpretation. 

» The Bill for establishing o National Bank, undertakes, among 
other things, 1. To form the subscribers into a corporation. 2. To 
enable them, in their corporate capacities, to receive grants of land ; 
and so far, is against the laws of Mortmain. 3. To make alien 
subscribers capable of holding lands ; and so far, is against the laws 
of Alienage. 4. To transmit these lands, on the death of a pro- 
prietor, to a certain line of successors ; and so far, changes the 
, course of Descents. 5. To put the lands out of the reach of for- 



L 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 305 

feiture or escheat ; and so far, is against the laws of Forfeiture and 
Escheat. 6. To transmit personal chattels to successors in a cer- 
tain line ; and so far, is against the laws of Distribution. 7. To 
give them the sole and exclusive right of banking under the nation- 
al authority ; and so far, is against the laws of Motiopoly. 8. To 
communicate to them a power to make laws paramount to the laws 
of the States ; for so they must be construed, to protect the institu- 
tion from the control of the State Legislatures ; and so, probably, 
they will be construed. 

" I consider the foundation of the constitution as laid on this 
ground, that 'all powers not delegated to the United States by the 
constitution, nor prohibited by it to tbe States, are reserved to the 
States or to the people.' (Twelfth aniendment.) To take a single 
step beyond the boundaries thus specially drawn around the pow- 
ers of Congress, is to take possession of a boundless field of power, 
no longer susceptible of any definition. 

The incorporation of a bank, and the powers assumed by this 
bill, have not, in my opinion, been delegated to the United States by 
the constitution. 

I. They are not among the powers specially enumerated. For 
these are, 

1. A power to lay taxes for the purpose of paying tbe debts of 
the United States. But no debt is paid by this bill, nor any tax 
laid. Were it a bill to raise money, its origination in the Senate 
would condemn it by the constitution. 

2. To 'borrow money.' But this bill neither borrows money, nor 
insures the borrowing it- The proprietors of the bank will be just 
as free as any other money-holders, to lender not to lend their mon- 
ey to the public. The operation proposed in the bill, first to lend 
them two millions, and then borrow them back again cannot 
chano-e the nature of the latter act, which wUl still be a payment 
and notti loan, call it by what name you please. 

3. 'To regulate commerce with foieign nations, and among the 
States, and with the Indian tribes.' To erect a bank, and to regu- 
late conmierce, are very different acts. He who erects a bank ere 
ates a subject of commerce in its bills : so does he who malves a 
bushel of wheat, or digs a dollar out of the mines. Yet neither of 
these persons regulates commerce thereby. To make a thing which 
may be bought and sold, is not to prescribe regulations for buying 
and selling. Besides, if tliis were an exercise of tbe power of regu 
lating commerce, it would be void, as extending as much to the in- 
ternal commerce of every State, as to its external. For the power 
given to Congress by the constitution, does not extend to the inter- 
nal regulation of the commerce of a State, (that is to say, of the 
commerce between citizen and citizen,) which remains exclusively 
witli its own legislature ; but to its external commerce only, that is 
Xo say, its commerce with another State, or with foreign nations, or 

27 



306 . LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

with the Indian tribes. Accordingly, the bill does not propose the 
rneasiu'e as a 'regulation of trade,' but as 'productive of considera- 
ble advantage to trade.' 

Still less are these powers covered by any other of the special 
enumerations. 

II. Nor are they within either of the general phrases, which are 
the two following. 

1. 'To lay taxes to provide for the general welfare of the United 
States ;' that is to say, 'to lay taxes for the ptirposc of providing 
for the general welfare.' For the laying of taxes is the jjoiver, and 
the general welfare the purpose for which the power is to be exer- 
cised. Congress are not to lay taxes, ad libitum^ for any purpose 
they p)lease : but only to pay the debts, or jjrovide for the iveJfare 
of the Union. In like manner, they are not^o do anything they 
please, to provide for the general welfare, but only to lay taxes for 
that purpose. To consider the latter phrase, not as describing the 
purpose of the first, but as giving a distinct and independent power 
to do any act they please, which might be for the good of the Union, 
would render all the preceding- and subsequent enumerations of 
power completely useless. It v/ould reduce the whole instrument 
to a single phrase, that of instituting a Congress wath power to do 
whatever would be for the good of the United States ; and as tlEiey 
would be the sole judges of the good or evil, it would be also a pow- 
er to do whatever evil they pleased. It is an established rule of 
construction, where a phrase will bear either of tv/o meanings, to 
give it that which will allov^^ some meaning to the other parts of the 
instrument, and not that which will render all the others useless. 
Certainly no such universal power was meant to be given them. 
It was intended to lace them up straitly within the enumerated pow- 
ers, and those wnthout which, as means, these powers could not be 
carried into effect. It' is known that the very power now proposed 
as a means, was rejected as an end by the convention which form- 
ed the constitution. A proposition was made to them, to authorize 
Congress to open canals, and an amendatory one, to empower them 
to incorporate. But the whole was rejected ; and one of the reasons 
of rejection urged in debate was, that they then would have a pow- 
er to erect a bank, which would render the great cities, where there 
were prejudices and jealousies on that subject, averse to the recep- 
tion of the constitution. 

2. The second general phrase is, 'to make all laws necessary 
and proper for carrying into execution the enumerated powers.' 
But they can all be carried into execution without a bank. A bank, 
therefore, is not necessary, and consequently, not authorized by this 
phrase. 

It has been much urged, that a bank will give great facility or 
convenience in the collection of taxes. Suppose this were true : 
yet the constitution allows only the means which are ' necessary' 



OP THOMAS Jefferson. 307 

not those which are merely 'convenient' for eflecting the enumera- 
ted poM'ers. If such a latitude of construction be allowed to this 
phrase, as to give any non-enumerated power, it will go to every 
one ; for there is no one whicii ingenuity may not torture into a 
convenience, in some way or other, to some one of so long a list of 
enumerated powers. It would swallow up all the delegated pow- 
ers, and reduce the whole to one phrase, as before observed. There- 
fore it was, tliat the constitution restrained them to the necessary 
means, that is to say, to those means without which the grant of 
the power would be nugatory. 

But let us examine this ' convenience,' and see what it is. The 
report on this subject, page 2, states the only general convenience 
to be, the preventing the transportation and re-transportation of 
money between the States and the treasury. (For I pass over the 
increase of circulation medium ascribed to it as a merit, and which, 
according to my ideas of paper money, is clearly a demerit.) Ev- 
ery State will have to pay a sum of tax-money into tlie treasury ; 
and the treasury will have to pay in every State a part of the inter- 
est on the public debt, and salaries to the officers of government res- 
ident in that State. In most of the States, there will be still a sur- 
plus of tax -money, to come up to the seat of government, for the of- 
ficers residing there. The payments of interests and salary in each 
Stale, may be made by treasury orders on the State collector. This 
will take up the greater part of the money he has collected in his 
State and consequently prevent the great mass of it from being drawn 
out of the State. If there be a balance of commerce in favor of 
that State, against the one in which the government resides, the 
surplus of taxes will be remitted by the bills of exchange drawn for 
that commercial balance. And so it must be if there were a bank. 
But if there be no balance of commerce, either direct or circuitous, 
all the banks in the world could not bring us the surplus of taxes but 
in the form of money. Treasury orders, then, and bills of ex- 
change, may prevent the displacement of the main mass of the 
money collected, without the aid of any bank ; and Avhere these 
fail, it cannot be prevented even with that aid. 

Perhaps, indeed, bank bills may be a more convenient vehicle 
than treasury orders. But a little difference in the degree of con- 
venience, cannot constitute the neccessity which the constitution 
makes the ground for assmning any non-enumerated power. 

Besides, the existing banks will, without doubt, enter into ar- 
rangements for lending their agency, and the more favorable, as 
there will be a competition among them for it. Whereas, this bill 
delivers us up bound to the national bank, who are free to refuse all 
arrangements but on their own terms, and the public not free, on 
such refusal to employ any other bank. That of Philadelphia, I 
believe, now does this business by their post notes, which, by an ar- 
rangement with the treasury, are paid by any State collector to 



SOS 



LIFE, WKITINGg, AND OPlNIO.NTS 



whom they are presented. This expedient alone, suffices to pre- 
vent the existence of that necessity which may justify the assump- 
tion of a non-enumerated power, as a means for carrying into effect 
an enumerated one. The thing may be done, and has been done, 
and well done, without tliis assumption ; therefore, it does not stand 
oil that degree of necessity whicli can honestly justify it. 

It may be said, that a bank, whose bills would have a currency 
all over the States, would be more convenient than one whose cur- 
rency is limited to a single State. So it would be still more con- 
venient, that there should be a bank whose bills should have a cur- 
rency all over the world. But it does not follow from this superioy 
eonveniency, that there exists any where a power to establish such a 
bank, or that the world may not go on very well without it. 

Can it be thought that the constitution intended, that for a shade 
or two of convenience, more or less, Congress should be authorized 
to break down the most ancient and fundamental laws of the sever- 
al States, such as those against mortmain, the laws of alienage, the 
rules of descent, the acts of distribution, the laws of escheat and for- 
feiture, and the laws of monopoly. Nothing but a necessity invinci- 
ble by any other means, can justify such a prostration of laws, 
which constitute the pillars of our whole system of jurisprudence. 
Will Congress be too strait-laced to carry the constitution into hon- 
est effect, unless they may pass over the foundaiion laws of the State 
governments, for the slightest convenience to theirs ? 

The negative of the President is the shield provided by the con- 
stitution, to protect against the invasions of the Icgislatvue, 1, the 
rights of the Executive ; 2, of the Judiciary ; 3, of the States and 
State legislatures. The present is the case of a right remaining ex- 
clusively with the States, and is, consequently, one of those intend- 
ed by the constitution to be placed under his protection. 

It must be added, however, that unless the President's mind, on 
a view of every thing which is urged for and against this bill, is 
tolerably clear that it is unauthorized by the constitution, if the 'pro 
and the con hang so even as to balance his judgment, a just respect 
for the wisdom of the legislature would naturally decide the bal- 
ance in favor of their opinion. It is chiefly for cases where they 
are clearly misled by eiror, ambition, or interest, that the constitu- 
tion has placed a check in the negative of the President." 

President Washington weighed the opinions of his Secretaries 
with great deliberation ; and, without being entirely satisfied, con- 
cluded to approve the act. His own individual opinion was against 
the constitutional power of the legislature to create such an institu- 
tion ; but he did not feel warranted to oppose his single judgment 
to tb.e declared wisdom and wishes of a majority of both Houses, 
and the opinions of one half of his constitutional advisers. The 



OF THOMAS JEFFRSON. 309 

political effects of this great engine were soon visible. While the 
governient remained at Philadelphia, a selection of members of Con- 
gress Avas constantly kept as directors, who, on every question in- 
teresting to the institution, voted at the will of its founder ; and 
with the aid of the stockholding members, could always ensure a 
majority. By this combination, legislative expositions were given 
to the constitution, which shaped the administrative laws on the 
model of the British government. And from this influence, the le- 
gislature was not relieved, until their removal from the precincts of 
the Bank, to Washington.* 

The extensive monied influence which Hamilton had now estab- 
lished, by the success of his financial exploits, reduced the whole 
action of the government under the direction of the Treasury. It 
must not be understood, however, that any thing like a majority in 
Congress had yielded to this corruption. Far from it. But a divi- 
sion, not very unequal, had already taken place in the honest part 
of that body, between the parties styled republican and federal ; 
and the mercenary phalanx, added to the latter, of which Hamilton 
was the leader, insured him always a majority in both Houses. 
Against this aristocracy of wealth and monarchism, in favor of splen- 
did schemes of government, and making daily inroads upon the 
constitution by legislative constructions promotive of those schemes, 
in favor of perpetual debt, excessive taxation, profuse expenditures, 
artificial distinctions, monoplies, standing armies, and all the ne- 
cessary implements and auxiharics of a heavy national, in contra- 
distinction to (i federal, republican government ; against this party 
and its measures, an opposition arose, of which a very injurious idea 
has been insinuated in histor}', but to which the world is indebted 
for the preservation of the principles of republicanism, and all the 
blessings which have flowed, and are yet to flow from their institu- 
tion. At the head of this opposition public opinion has universally 
placed Thomas Jefferson ; and as his opponents were anxious he 
should bear all the odium of the distinction, while hving, they will 
not object to his receiving the glory of it, now awarded to him by 
the unanimous and dispassionate judgment of posterity. 

" Here then was the real ground of the opposition which was 
made to the course of administration. Its object was to preserve 



Ana. 



310 ■ LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

the legislatme pure and independent of the executive, to restrain 
the administration to repubUcan forms and principles, and not per- 
mit the constitution to be construed into a monarchy, and to be 
warped, in practice, into all the principles and pollutions of their 
favorite English model. Nor was this an opposition to General 
Washington. He was true to the republican charge confided to him ; 
and has solemnly and repeatedly protested to me, in our conversa- 
tions, that he would lose the last drop of his blood in support of it ; 
and he did this the oftener and with the more earnestness, because 
he knew my suspicions of Hamilton's designs against it, and wish- 
ed to quiet them. For he was not aware of the drift, or of the ef- 
fect of Hamilton's schemes. Unversed in financial projects and cal- 
culations and budgets, his approbation of them was bottomed on his 
confidence in the man." 

No other office under the Government of the United States, com- 
prehends so wide a range of objects, or involves duties of such mag- 
nitude, complexity and responsibility, as the Department of State. 
It embraces the whole mass of foreign administration, and the prin- 
cipal of the domestic. To the first order of capacity, and the great- 
est versatility of talent, it is indispensal)le that the organ of this 
copious magistracy, should unite an intimate and extensive knowl- 
edge of the foreign and domestic situation of the country, a famil- 
iarity with the civil and international code of the government, and 
a profound acquaintance with history, and human nature. If these 
qualifications are rightly considered essential prerequisities, under 
ordinary times and circumstances, how much more was their pos- 
session necessary, at the opening crisis of the new government ? 
Before it had formed a character among nations, and when the im- 
pulse and direction which should then l)e given to it, would estab- 
lish that character, perhaps everlastingly ? Before its internal fac- 
idtics and capabilities were developed, but while they were in the 
process of development, when, consequently, every thing depended 
on the mode of treatment, which should be administered by its su- 
[H-eme functionaries ? The share Avhich Mr. Jefferson had, in mar- 
shahng the domestic resources of the republic, and fixing them 
upon a lucrative foundation, in shaping the subordinate features of 
its political organization, and, most especially, in estabhshing the 
principles of its foreign policy, constitutes one of the most splendid 
epochs in his public history. Among the multitude of his official 
labors, in advancement of these objects, the following specific acts 
enjoy a distinguished reputation : 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 311 

Report of a plan for establishing a uniform system of Coinsy 
Weights and Measures in the United States, 
Report on the Cod and Whale Fisheries. 

Report on the Commerce and Navigation of the United States. 
These performances were of an extra character, not necessarily 
appertaining to the duties of his Department, and, indeed, belong- 
ing more properly to some one or more of the ordinary committees 
of Congress. They were of a peculiar nature, growing out of the 
infancy of the republic, and the imperfect development and organi- 
zation of its resources, dependencies and capabilities ; and, as such, 
their execution, in a faithful and satisfactory manner, required an 
accurate knowledge of the condition of the country, internal and ex- 
ternal, physical and moral, with the exercise of the most patient in- 
vestigation, and varied practical talents. The manner in which these 
difficult and important trusts were discharged by Mr. Jefferson, was 
of a character which ehcited the spontaneous admiration of all parts 
of the country. 

1. The Report of the Secretary of State, containing a plan for 
establishing a uniform system of Coins, Weights and Measures, 
was executed with astonishing dispatch, considering the intricacy 
of the subject, and the novelty of the experiment. He received the 
order of Congress on the 15th of April, 1790, when an illness of 
several weeks supervened, which, with the pressure of other busi- 
ness, retarded his entrance upon the undertaking, until some time 
in the ensuing month. He finished it, however, on the 20th of 
May. One branch of the subject, that of Coins, had already re- 
ceived his attention, while a member of Congress, in 1T84 ; and 
it had then occurred to him, that a corresponding uniformity 
in the kindred branches, of weights and measures, would be easy of 
introduction, and a desirable improvement. But the idea was not 
pursued by him, except for his own private gratification ; having 
procured an odometer, of curious construction upon this principle, 
he used to carry it, when travelling, and note the distances in miles, 
cents and mills. 

In sketching the principles of his system, Mr. Jeflerson was de- 
pendent on the guides of his own genius. It was in vain to look to 
tlie enlightened nations of the old world, for an example to direct 
him in his researches. No such example existed. It is a little re- 
markable, however, that two of the principal European govern- 



312 - LIFK, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

ments, France and England, were at this very period, learnedly en- 
gaged on the same subiect. 

The lirst object which presented itself in his enquiries, was the 
discovery of some measure of invariable length, as a standard. 
This was found to be a matter of no small difficulty. 

"There exists not in nature, as far as has been hitherto observed, 
a single subject or species of subject, accessible to mail; which pre- 
sents one constant and uniform dimension. 

"The globe of the earth itself, indeed, might be considered as in- 
variablein all its dimensions, and that its circumference would fur- 
nish an invariable measure : but no one of its circles, great or small 
Is accessible to admeasurement through all its parts ; and the various 
trials, to measure definite portions of them, have been of such vari- 
ous result, as to shew there is no dependence on that operation for 
certainty. 

" Matter then, by its mere extension, furnishing nothing invaria- 
ble, its motion is the only remaining resource. 

"The motion of the earth round its axis, though not absolutely 
uniform and invariable, may be considered as such for every human 
purpose. It is measured obviously, but unequally, by the departure 
of a given meridian from the sun, and its return to it, constituting a 
solar day. Tlirowing together the inettualities of solar days, a mean 
interval, or day, has been found, and divided, liy very general con- 
sent, into eighty -six thousand four hundred equal parts. 

" A pendulum, vibrating freely, in small and equal arcs, may be 
so adjusted in its length, as, by its vibrations, to make this division 
of the earth's motion into eighty-six thousand four hundred equal 
parts, called seconds of mean time. 

"Such a pendulum, then, becomes itself a measure of determin- 
ate length, to which all others may be referred, as to a standard." 

But even the pendulum was not without its uncertainties. 
Among these, not the least was the fact, that the period of its vibra- 
tions varied in different latitudes. To obviate this objection, he pro- 
posed to fix on some one latitude to which the standard should refer. 
That of 38 deg. being the mean latitude of the United States, he 
adopted it, at first ; but afterwards, on receiving a printed copy of a 
proposition of the Bishop of Autun, to the National Assembly of 
France, in which the author had recommended the 45 deg., he con- 
cluded to substitute that in the room of 38 deg., for the sake of 
uniformity with a nation, with whom we were connected, in (^om'• 
luerce, and in the hope that it might become a line of union with 
the rest of the world. 



OP THOMAS JEFFERSON. 



313 



Having adopted the pendulum vibrating seconds in the 45 deg. 
of latitude, as a standard of invariable length, he proceeded to iden- 
tify, by that, the measures, weights and coins of the United States. 
But, unacquainted with the extent of reformation meditated by Con- 
gress, he submitted two alternative plans. First, on the supposition 
that the difliculty of changing the established habits of a whole 
nation, opposed an insuperable bar to a radical reformation, he pro- 
posed that the present weights and measures should be retained, but 
be rendered uniform, by bringing them to the same invariable stand- 
ard. Secondly, on the hypothesis that an entire reformation was 
contemplated, he proposed the adoption of a unit of measure, to which 
the whole system of weights and measures should be reduced, with 
divisions and subdivisions in the decimal ratio, corresponding to the 
uniformity already established in the coins of the United States. 
On the whole, he was inclined to favor the alternative of a general 
reformation, with a view to conform the denominations of weights 
and measures to those already introduced into the currency of the 
country. The facility, which such an improvement would estab- 
lish in the vulgar arithmetic, would, in his opinion, be soon and 
sensibly feU by the mass of the people, who would thereby be ena- 
bled to compute for themselves, whatever they should have occa- 
sion to buy, sell, or measure, which the present difficult and com- 
plicated ratios, for the most part, place beyond their computation. 
In the event of its being adopted, however, he recommended a grad- 
ual substitution of it in practice. A progressive introduction would 
lessen the inconveniences, which might attend too sudden a substi- 
tution, even of an easier, for a more difficult system. After a given 
term, for instance, it might begin in the custom houses, where the 
merchants would become familiarized to it. After a further term, 
it might be introduced into all legal proceedings ; and merchants 
and traders in foreign commodities might be required to use it. Af- 
ter a still further term, all other descriptions of persons might receive 
it into common use. Too long a postponement, on the other hand, 
would increase the difficulties of its reception, with the increase of 
our population. 

This report is a curious and learned document, valuable to the 
statesman and philosopher ; though, for the same reasons, not cal- 
culated to interest the general reader. It was submitted to Con- 
gress on the 13th of July, 1790, and referred to a committee who 



lU 



LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 



reported in favor of the alternative plan of a general reformation^ 
on the principles recommended by the author. But the subject 
was postponed from session to session, for several years, without re- 
ceiving a final determination ; and at length, became lost altogeth- 
er in the crowd of more weighty and important matters. The idea 
of reducing to a single standard the discordant ratios of coins^ 
weights and measures, has ever since, at diflferent intervals, engaged 
the attention of learned statesmen in England, France, Spain and 
America ; but a fear of encountering the diiiiculties of a change of 
familiar denominations, with a natural attachment to established 
usage, lias hitherto prevented the introduction of a general uniform- 
ity of series, in the systems of either country. 

2. The Report of the Secretary of State on the Cod and 
Whale Fisheries of the United States, is one of those ancient 
State papers, which, unlike the iimumeiable multitude that per- 
ish with the occasion, seem destined as immortal inheritances to 
this country. The subject was referred to him by Congress, on 
the 9th of August, 1790, in consequence of a representation fiom 
the Legislature of Massachus?etts, setting forth the embarrassments 
under which these great branches of their lousiness labored, and 
soliciting the interference of the government in various Avays. A 
very general abstraet of this voluminous paper, as in the case of 
the preceding, is all that can be expected. 

The Report commences with an historical review of the Fisher- 
ies, froiAi their discovery in 1517, by adventures from Spain and 
France, through the intermediate stages of their rise and progress, 
with different nations, down to their present state. In very remote 
times, the value of the Newfoundland fishery was deemed almost 
inappreciable. Such was the importance attached to it, in a na- 
tional point of view, that it was made the subject of an animated 
rivalry between the great maratime Powers of Europe, for centuries. 
The business being as unprofitable to the adventurer, as it was im- 
portant to the public, the patronage of the foreign governments was 
employed, at an extravagant rate, and in a variety of forms. Great 
Britain and France vied in the competition by giving such exor- 
bitant bounties to their fishermen, as sensibly affected their treas- 
uries. In 1731, the Americans first engaged in the business ; and, 
aided by the mere force of natural advantages, by their contiguity 
to the grounds, the cheapness of their vessels, provisions and casks, 



> 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 315 

and by the superiority of their mariners in skill, enterprise, and sobri- 
ety, they were able to compete successfully with the distant nations, 
against the united weight of their patronage. But, during the war 
of the Revolution, the fisheries of the United States were annihi- 
lated ; their vessels, utensils, and fishermen destroyed ; their mar- 
kets in the Mediterranean and British America lost ; their produce 
dutied in those of France ; and on the restoration of peace, the 
British navigation system, falling with tenfold violence on this 
branch of American conmierce, seemed to place its recovery beyond 
the power of the incipient government. 

Such were the hopeless auspices imder which this important 
business was to be resumed. Our natural advantages were great ; 
but on a view of every policy under which it had flourished or de- 
clined, with every nation, the fact was sufficiently marked, that it 
was too poor a business to be left to itself, even with the nation 
the most advantageously situated. While hovv^ever experience 
{JToved, that no other nation could make a mercantile profit on the 
Newfoundland fisheries, nor even support them without the aid of 
large bounties, the author showed, by a long and luminous train of 
reasoning, that the United States, owing to their natural advanta- 
ges, could make a living profit on them, provided the government 
would interfere so far only as to procure a vent for their fish. 

" It will rest therefore, with the wisdom of the legislature, to de- 
cide, whether prohibition should not be opposed to prohibition, and 
high duty to high duty, on the fish of other nations ; whether any, 
and which of the naval and other duties, may be remitted, or an 
equivalent giv^en to the fisherman in the form of a drawback or 
bounty ; and whether the loss of markets abroad may not, in some 
degree, be compensated by creating markets at home : to which 
might contribute the constituting fish a part of the military ration, 
in stations not too dislant from navigation, a part of the necessary 
sea-stores of vessels, and the encouraging private individuals to let 
the fishermen share with the cultivator, in furnishing the supplies 
of the table. A habit introduced from motives of patriotism, would 
soon be followed from motives of taste ; and who will undertake to 
fix the limits to this demand, if it can be once excited, with a na- 
tion which doubles, and will continue to double at 'very short peri- 
ods?" 

The Americans began their Whale Fishery in 1715. They 
were invited to it at first by the appearance of the whales on their 
coast. They attacked them in small vessels of forty tons. As the 



316 LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

whale, being infested, retired from the coast, they followed him fur- 
ther and further into the ocean, enlarging their vessels, with their 
adventures, to sixty, one hundred, and two hundred tons. Having 
extended their pursuit to the Western Islands, they fell in, acciden- 
tally, with the spermaceti whale ; and the distinction now first arose 
between the nortliern and southern fisheries, the object of the former 
being the Greenland whale, which frequented the northern coasts, 
and that of the latter, the spermaceti whale, which was found in 
the southern seas. At the commencement of the Revolution the 
Americans had one hundred and seventy-seven vessels in the north- 
ern, and one hundred and thirty-two in the southern fishery. 

At that period, our fishery being suspended, the English seized 
the opportunity of monopolizing the business, by a series of artful 
measures. They conferred extravagant bounties on their whale 
ships ; invited the fishermen of the United States to conduct their 
enterprises ; and prepared the way for effectuating their offer by 
imposing such a duty on our whale oils as amounted to a prohibi- 
tion. 

The fishermen of the United States, left without resource by the 
loss of their markets, began to think of accepting the British invi- 
tation, and of removing, some to Nova Scotia, others to Great Brit- 
ain, postponing country and friends to high premiums. 

The government of France could not be inattentive to these pro- 
ceedings. They saw the danger of permitting four or five thou- 
sand seamen, the best in the world, to be transferred to the marine 
strength of a rival nation, and carry with them an art which they 
possessed almost exclusively. They therefore adopted the plan of 
extending a counter invitation to American seamen, to remove and 
settle in Dunkirk, backing their invitation with heavy premiums, 
and many other advantages. This was in 1785. Mr. JefTerson 
being then at Paris, endeavored to pievail on the French ministry 
to vary their policy, first by abating the duties on American oil, 
and afterwards by closing their ports to all foreign fish oils, of every 
nation, except the produce of the whale fisheries of the United 
States. This was accordingly done ; but they continued their en- 
deavors to increase their share in the fisheries themselves, by the 
aid of our fishermen, and by giving large bounties to their own. 

Such was the weight of competition against which the United 
States had to stmggle, for the resumption and continuance of their 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 317 

whale fisheries. Against prohibitory duties in one nation, and 
bounties to the adventurers of both of those which were contend- 
ing with each other for the supremacy, the Americans had noth- 
ing to oppose but poverty and rigorous economy. The business, 
unaided, was a wretched one, but infinitely too important, in a na- 
tional point of view, to be overlooked by the government. Be- 
sides being peculiarly fitted by nature for becoming a source of rev- 
enue to the United States, it wa!s a valuable nursery for forming 
American seamen. On the island of Nantucket alone, which was 
capable of maintaining, by its agriculture, only about twenty fam- 
ilies, between five and six thousand persons were profitably employ- 
ed in these fisheries before the war. 

These considerations rendered it indispensable, in the opinion of 
the author, that some effectual relief should be administered for re 
instating the business upon its ancient basis. And he recommend- 
ed the interference of the government in three ways — A remission 
of duties on the articles used in the fisheries — A retaliating duty 
on foreign oils coming in competition with ours — Free markets 
abroad, which was the principal object. 

France was the only nation which needed our surplus ; and it 
was important that she should continue to view us, as heretofore, 
not in the light of rivals, but as co-operators against a common ri- 
val. Friendly arrangements with that nation, and accommodations 
to mutual interest, rendered easier by amicable dispositions on both 
sides, might long secure to the United States, this important resource 
for their seamen. Nor was it the interest of the fishermen alone, 
which called for the cultivation of friendly relations with France. 
Besides five-eights of our whale oil, and two-thirds of our salted 
fish, they received from us one-fourth of our tobacco, three- fourths 
of our live stock, a considerable and growing portion of our rice, 
and great supplies, occasionally, of our grain. It was also a free 
market for our ships and ship-timber, potash and peltry. 

England was the market for the greater part of our spermaceti 
oil ; but they imposed such a duty on all our oils, as, to the common 
kind, was a prohibition, and to the spermaceti, but little less ; and 
not long since, by a, change of construction, without any change 
of law, they excluded our oils entirely from their ports, when 
brought in our own vessels ; 

28 



318 ' LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

'• This serves to show, that the tenure, by which we liold the ad- 
mission of this commodity in their markets, is as precarious as it 
is hard. Nor can it be announced, that there is any disposition on 
their part to arrange this or any other commercial matter, to mu- 
tual convenience. Tlie exparte regulations, which they have be-' 
gun, for mounting their navigation on the ruin of ours, can only 
be opposed by counter regulations on our part. And the loss of 
seamen, the natural consequence of lost and obstructed markets 
for our fish and oil, calls, in tlie first place, for serious and timely 
attention. It will be too late, when the seaman shall have changed 
his vocation, or gone over to another interest." 

This sound and energetic Report was submitted to Congress on 
the 4th of February, 1791. It was accepted, published, and ap- 
plauded by the great majority of the people. The policy so ur- 
gently recommended by Mr. Jefferson, was adopted ; and its utility 
was soon demonstrated, by the restoration to the United States, up- 
on a prosperous and permanent footing, of one of their most im- 
jwrtant branches of domestic and maritime industry. 

The' strictures of this Report upon the British commercial and 
navigation system, and its demonstrations of the more liberal policy 
of France, though they could not be denied by Great Britain her- 
self, in a single point, received a reluctant assent from the monar- 
chical party in the United States ; and served to place more in con- 
trast before the public, the collisions of political sentiment between 
the heads of the State and Treasury department. This contrast 
was completed, and the division of sentiment rendered almost as 
perfect in the public ^^mind, as it existed in the Cabinet, by — 

3. The Report of the Secretary of State on Commerce and 
Navigation. This paper was prepared in pursuance of a resolution 
of the House of Representatives, passed on the 23d of February, 
1791, instructing him to report to Congress the nature and extent 
of the privileges and restrictions of the commercial intercourse of 
the United States with foreign nations, and the measures which he 
should think proper to be adopted for the improvement of their 
commerce and navigation. 

The Report stated the exports of the United States to Great Brit- 
ain at more than nine millions annually, and the imports from that 
nation at fifteen millions. The amount of exports to France was 
only about four and a half millions, and that of imports two mill- 
ions. Notwithstanding the vast disproportion of our trade, in favor 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 



310 



of England, the restrictions imposed on it by that nation, were far 
mortf burthensome and oppressive than those imposed by France. 

With respect to the navigation of the United States, our ships, 
though purchased and navigated by British subjects, were not per- 
mitted to be used even in the trade of. that nation with vis. While 
the vessels of other nations were secured by a standing law to 
carry to England any produce or manufactures of the country to 
which they belonged, which might be lawfully carried in any ves- 
sels, ours, with the same prohibition of what was foreign, were fur- 
ther prohibited by a standing law from carrying thither any of our 
domestic productions and manufactures. A subsequent act au- 
thorized the King to permit the carriage of our productions in our 
own bottoms, at his pleasure, which was given every year by proc- 
lamation ; but this was so precarious a tenure, that our vessels were 
liable every moment to be interdicted from British ports. Our ships 
paid in their ports more than their own, except in the port of Lon- 
don, where they paid the same. In addition to all this, the greater 
part of oiu' exports were re-exported from Great Britain to other 
countries, under the useless charges of a double voyage, and inter- 
mediate deposite. Instead, therefore, of supplying their wants mere- 
ly, w^e were loading them with surpluses for transportation to other 
countries, and thus, besides helping them to command the commerce 
of the world, were pouring into their treasury extravagant duties, 
which might as well be paid to other nations who received our ves- 
sels comparatively free. 

With respect to the navigation of the United States to the portii 
of France, our ships were free to carry thither all goods and produc- 
tions which might be carried in their own or any other vessels, ex- 
cept tobaccos not of our own growth. Our vessels participated with 
tlieirs the exclusive carriage of our whale oils and tobaccos ; and 
they were admitted naturalization in all their ports until lately. 
They and their Colonies were the actual consumers of w^iat they 
received from us. 

After enumerating the various restrictions on our commerce, in 
the form of duties on our articles of export, the Report proceeds to 
recommend the mode in which those restrictions should be removed, 
modified or counteracted. It proposed two methods : 1. By amica- 
ble arrangements, as being the most ehgible in all cases, if practica 



320 



LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 



blc. 2. By countervailing regulationts, where friendly arrange- 
ments could not be made. ' 

"There can be no doubt but that of these two, friendly arrange- 
ment is the most eligible. Instead of embarrassing commerce under 
piles of regulating laws, duties and prohibitions, could it be relieved 
from all its shackles in all parts of the world, could every country 
be employed in producing that which nature has best fitted it to pro- 
duce, and each be free to exchange with others mutual surpluses 
for mutual wants, the greatest mass possible would then be produ- 
ced of those things which contribute to human life and human hap- 
piness ; the numbers of mankind would he increased, and their 
condition bettered. 

"Would even a single nation begin with the United States this 
system of hee commerce, it would be advisable to begin it with that 
nation ; since it is one by one only, tliat it can be extended to all. 
AYhen the circumstances of cither party render it expedient to -levy 
a revenue, by way of impost, on commerce, its freedom might be 
modified, in that particular, by mutual and equivalent measures, 
preserving it entire in all others. * * * 

" But should any nation, contrary to our wishes, suppose it may 
better find its advantage by continuing its system of prohibitions, 
duties and regulations, it Ijehooves us to protect our citizens, their 
commerce and navigation, by counter prohibitions, duties and regu- 
lations, also. Free commerce and navigation are not to be given in 
exchange for restrictions and vexations : nor are they likely to pro- 
duce a r&lftxatioii gi them," 

The navigation of the United States, in the opinion of the Secre- 
tary, involved even higher considerations. As a branch of industiy 
it was valuable ; but as a l)ulwark of defence, indispensable. Its 
value as a branch of industry was enhanced by the dependence up- 
on it, of so many other l>ranches. In times of peace it multiplied 
competitors for employment in transportation ; in times of wnr, if 
we had not the means of transportation, the belligerent nations 
would monopolize our carrying trade. But as a Aveapon of defence, 
it was inestimable. On the land the United States had nothing to 
fear, but on the ocean they were liable to injury at all times. Their 
conunerce must be protected or lost, and with it, their seamen, ship 
artists, and establishments. 

"Were the ocean, which is the common property of all, open to 
the industry of all, so that every person and vessel should lie free to 
take employment wherever it could be found, the United States 
would certainly not set the example of appropriating to themselves, 
exclusively, any portion of the connnon stock of occupation. But 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 321 

if particular nations grasp at undue shares, and more especially, if 
they seize on the means of the United States to convert them into 
aliment for their own strength, and withdraw them entirely from 
the support of those to whom they belong, defensive and protecting 
measures become necessary on the part of the nation whose marine 
resources are thus invaded, or it will be disarmed of its defence, its 
productions will lie at the mercy of the nation which has possessed 
itself exclusively of the means of carrying them, and its poUtics may 
be influenced by those who command its commerce." 

After pressing this argument much further, the author proceeds 
to recommend the principles of retaliation, by which the United 
States should be governed. And these, he contended, to be effectu- 
al, should be exactly reciprocal and equivalent. Where a nation 
imposes high duties on our productions, or prohibits them altogeth- 
er, we should do the same in relation to their productions. First, 
taking those in competition with our own of the same kind ; and 
next, those which we receive from them in great quantities, and can 
furnish ourselves with the soonest. Where a nation refuses to re- 
eeive in our vessels any productions but our own, we should retort 
upon them the same terms. Where a nation refuses to consider 
any vessel as ours which has not been built in our own territories ; 
or where she refuses to our vessels the carriage of our own produc- 
tions, to countries under her jurisdiction, we should enact corres- 
ponding prohibitions in respect to such nation. 

"The estabUshment of some of these principles by Great Britain, 
alone, has already lost us in our commerce with that country and 
its possessions, between eight and nine hundred vessels, of near 
40,000 tons burthen, according to statements from official materials, 
in which they have confidence. This involves a proportional loss 
of seamen, ship-wrights, and ship-building, and is too serious a loss 
to admit forbearance of some effectual remedy. 

"It is true we must expect some inconveniences in practice from 
the establishment of discriminating duties. But in this, as in so 
many other cases, we are left to choose between two evils. These 
inconveniences are nothing when weighed against the loss of 
wealth and loss of force, which will follow our perseverance in the 
plan of indiscrimination. When once it shall be perceived that we 
are either in the system or in the habit of giving equal advantages 
to those who extinguish our commerce and navigation by duties 
and prohibitions, as to those who treat both with liberality and jus- 
tice, liberality and justice will be converted by all into duties and 
prohibitions. It is not to the moderation and justice of others we 
are to trust for fair and equal access to market with our productions 

28* 



322 ' LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

or for our due share in the transportation of them ; but to our own 
means of independence, and the firm will to use them. INor do the 
inconveniences of discrimination merit consideration. Not one of 
the nations before mentioned, perhaps not a commercial nation on 
earth is without them. In our case, one distinction alone will suf- 
fice — that is to say — -between nations who favor our productions 
and navigation, and those who do not favor them. One set of 
moderate duties, say the present duties, for the first, and a fixed ad- 
vance on these as to some articles, and prohibitions as to others, for 
the last. 

" Still it must be repeated that friendly arrangements are prefera- 
ble with all who will come into them ; and that we should carry 
into such arrangements all the liberality and spirit of accommoda- 
tion which the nature of the case will admit.'' 

This celebrated Report, aside from its intrinsic merits, derives great 
im])ortance from the consideration, that it established the general 
principles of foreign policy, which it has been the object of the gov- 
ernment to pursue ever since the civil revolution in 1800. It was 
finished by Mr. Jefierson in the summer of 1792 ; but, anxious 
that it should be indisputably correct in matters of fact, he retained 
it in his hands for more than a year, and it was not communicated 
to Congress until within a few days previous to his resignation. 
The political consequences which resulted from it, being of a promi- 
nent and abiding character, will be more properly considered at that 
point of time. 

The administration of the foreign affairs of the Republic devolv- 
ing, ex officio, on the Secretary of State, the principal mass of his la- 
bors emanates from that source. Being the organ of intercommuni- 
cation between the government and all foreign nations, the prepar- 
ing and communicating instructions to our ministers, of every grade, 
at the different courts, and the answering those of foreign ministers, 
of every grade, resident in the United States, constitute a perpetual 
routine of arduous and compUcated^duties. Perhaps there was nev- 
er a period in our history, in which these duties were more onerous 
and multiphed, than during the years 1791, '92, and '93. The 
United States were at issue, on the most delicate points of contro- 
versy, with England, France, and Spain ; and finally, the coaUtion 
of European despots, against republican France, drove our govern- 
ment into the necessity of maintaining a strict and impartial neu- 
trality towards the belligerent paities — the most difficult posture 
which this country was ever called on to assume. 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 323 

Willi Spain, difficulties had arisen of a serious ciiaracter. They 
concerned chiefly the navigation of the Mississipjii below our south- 
ern limit, the right to which was still unyielded ; the settlement of 
boundaries between the two nations ; and the interference, on the 
part of Spain, with the tribes of Indians in our territories, inciting 
them to frequent and ferocious depredations on oiu- citizens. 

On all these points, tlie talents and ingenuity of the Secretary 
of State, were constantly exercised in communicating and enforcing 
the opinions of the administration. On the subject of the Missis- 
sippi, his instructions to our Minister at Madrid, w^ere rigorous and 
uncompromising. He insisted that the United States had a right 
not only to the unmolested navigation of that river, to its ')?ioufh, 
but also to an entrepot near thereto, in the dominions of Spain, sub- 
ject to our jurisdiction exclusively, for the convenience and protec- 
tion of our commerce. He grounded these rights upon the broad 
principle of the law of nature, that the inhabitants on both sides of 
a navigable river, are entitled to the common use and enjoyment 
of it, to the ocean ; and that the right to use a thing comprehends 
a right to all the means necessary to its use. The peculiar energy 
and urgency of his otiicial communications, are in unison with the 
high tone of American feeling, which he carried into every situa- 
tion, public and private. 

" With this information, written and oral, you will be enabled to 
meet the minister in conversations on the subject of the navigaticfti 
of the Mississippi, to which we wish you to lead his attention im- 
mediately. Impress him thoroughly with the necessity of an early, 
and even an immediate settlement of this matter, and of a return 
to the field of negotiation for this purpose : and though it must be 
done delicately, yet he must be made to understand unequivocally, 
that a resumption of the negotiation is not desired on our part, un- 
less he can determine, in the first opening of it, to yield the imme- 
diate and full enjoyment of that navigation. (I say nothing of the 
claims of Spain to our territory north of the thirty- first degree, and 
east of the Mississippi. They never merited the respect of an an- 
swer ; and you know it has been cidmitted at Madrid, that they 
were not to be maintained.) It may be asked, what need of ne- 
gotiation, if the navigation is to be ceded at all events ? You know 
that the navigation cannot be practised without a port, where the 
sea and river vessels may meet and exchange loads, and where 
those employed about fhem-^may be safe and unmolested. The 
right to use a thing, comprehends a right to the means necessary 
to its use, and without which it would be useless. The fixing on 



324 ' LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

a proper port, and the degree of freedom it is to enjoy in its oj^era- 
tioiis, will require negotiation, and be governed by events. There 
is danger indeed, that even the unavoidable delay of sending a ne- 
gotiator here, may render the mission too late for the preservation 
of peace. It is impossible to answer for the forbearance of our wes- 
tern citizens. We endeavor to quiet them with the expectation of 
an attainment of our rights by peaceable means. But should they, 
in a moment of impatience, hazard others, there is no saying how 
far we may be led : for neither themselves nor their rights will ever 
be abandoned by us." 

On the subject of the boundaries between the United States and 
Spain, and the incendiary interference of the latter with the Indians 
on our territories, the communications of Mr. Jefferson gave a front 
to the foreign administration of the government, which rivaled the 
boldest period of the Revolution. He uniformly pressed on our 
Minister the importance of assuring the Court of Spain, on every 
occasion, in respectful yet unequivocal terms, that the essential prin- 
ciples in dispute would never be relinquished, preferring always a 
peaceful redress of grievances, yet fearless of war, if driven to that 
extremity. Such however was the obstinacy of Spain, arid her 
jealousy of a rising power in the w^est, which was one day to oblit- 
erate her American pessessions, that although she deprecated the 
possibility of war, she artfully parried all attempts at negotiation, 
and secretly practised her incendiary manoeuvring with the Indians. 
This temporizing and inhuman policy, at length drew forth from 
Mr. Jefferson a bold and eloquent address to the Court of Spain 
itself, declaring the ultimate determination of the government, in 
language equally resolute and conciliatory. 

" We love and we value peace ; we know its blessings from expe - 
rience ; unmeddling with the affairs of other nations, we had hoped 
that our distance and our dispositions, would have left us free, in the 
example and indulgence of peace with all the world. We had with 
sincere and particular dispositions, courted and cultivated the friend- 
ship of Spain. Cherishing the same sentiments, we have chosen 
to ascribe the unfriendly insinuations of the Spanish commissioners, 
in their intercourse with the government of the United States, to the 
peculiar character of the writers, and to remove the cause from them 
to their sovereign, in whose justice and love of peace we have confi- 
dence. If we are disappointed in this appeal, if we are to be forced 
into a contrary order of things, our mind is made up, we shall meet 
it with firmness. The necessity of our position will supersede all 
appeal to calculation now, as it has done heretofore. We confide in 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSOX. 325 

our own strength, without boasting of it : we respect that of others, 
without fearing it. If Spain chooses to consider our self defence 
against savage butchery as a cause of war to her, we must nreet her 
also in war, with regret but without fear ; and we shall be happier 
to the last moment, to repair with her to the tribunal of peace and 
reason." 

The controversy with Spain, on these several points, w^as contin- 
ued with unabated ardor, while Mr. Jefferson remained Secretary 
of State. The rights in dispute were finally secured by treat)", on 
the principles contended for by him, except that the right to an en- 
trepot at New Orleans was hmited to three years. The principle 
of free bottoms, free goods, was also recognized ; and the practice of 
privateering was humanely restrained. These were favorite ideas 
with Mr. Jefferson. The treaty with Spain was concluded on tlie 
27th of October, 1795. 

In the midst of the contest with Spain, the Secretary of State 
became involved in a diplomatic controversy with Mr. Hammond, 
Minister Plenipotentiary of Great Britain to the United States. 
This controversy originated in the inexecution of the treaty of 
peace ; infractions of which, in various particulars, had been mutu- 
ally charged, by each upon the other party, ever since the conclu- 
sion of the war. Mr. Jelfeison directed the attention of the British 
Minister to the subject, in a pointed manner. He informed him 
that the British garrisons had not evacuated the western posts, in 
violation of an express stipulation to that effect in the seventh arti- 
ticle, that the British otiicers had (^exercised jurisdiction over the 
country and inhabitants in the vicinity of these posts, that Ameri- 
can citizens had been excluded from the navigation of the lakes, 
and that, contrary to the same article, a great number of negroes, 
the property of American citizens, had been carried away on the 
evacuation of New York. 

Mr. Hammond replied, by admitting the alleged infractions, but 
justifying them, on the ground of retaliation, the United States hav- 
ing previously, he declared, violated their engagements, by obstruc- 
ting the payment of debts justly due to British creditors, and by 
refusing to make remuneration for repeated confiscations of British 
property, during and since the war. 

To this, Mr. Jefferson rejoined, on the 29th of May, '92, in a 
masterly communication of more than sixty pages octavo. He re- 



326 LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

viewed the whole ground of the controversy, from beginning to end, 
sustaining his former positions and overturning those of the British 
Minister, by such clear and conclusive arguments, as drove his 
antagonist fairly from the field. He showed that, with respect to 
property confiscated by the individual States, the treaty merely 
stipulated, that Congress should recommend to the legislatures of 
the several States, to provide for its restitution. That Congress had 
done all in their power, and all they were bound by the treaty to 
do ; that it was left witlf the States to comply or not, as they might 
think proper, with the recommendation of Congress, and that this 
was so understood by the British negotiators, and l)y the British 
ministry, at the time the treaty was concluded. He also claimed, 
that the first infractions were on the part of Great Britain, by re- 
taining the western posts, and the deportation of negroes ; and that 
tlie delays and impediments which had taken place, in the collec- 
tion of British debts, were justifiable on that acoount. 

Hammond never undertook an answer to this communication. 
After niore than a year had elapsed, without hearing any tiling 
from him, Mr. Jefierson invited his attention to the subject, and re- 
quested an answer. But Hammond evaded the challenge, alleging 
0:3 an excuse for his neglect, that he awaited instructions from his 
government. In this state the matter rested until it became merg- 
ed in disputes of a more serious character, by the outbreak of a gen- 
eral war in Europe, which changed the political relations of both 
continents. 

Against another pretension on the part of Great Britain, and one 
which ultimately conduced to the second war with that nation, Mr. 
Jeflferson had the honor of opposing the first formal resistance of our 
government. This was the impressment of seamen on board Amer- 
ican ships, under color of their being British subjects. This cus- 
tom was peculiar to England ; she had practised it towards all other 
nations, from time immemorial, but with accumidated rigor towards 
the United States, since their independence. She claimed the ab- 
solute right of going on board American ships, with her press-gangs, 
and constraining into her service all seamen whatsoever, who could 
not produce upon the spot, written evidences of their citizenship. 
The consequence was that American citizens were frequently carri- 
ed off, and subjected to multiplied cruelties, not only without evi- 
dence, but even against evidence. In opposition to this preposter- 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 327 

Oils claim, the Secretai}'^ ^of State proclaimed the determined voice 
of the government, and authorized a rigorous system of reprisal, 
unless the practice should be abandoned. He contended that 
American bottoms should be jirima facie evidence that all on 
board were Americans, which would throw the burden of proof, 
where it ought to be, on those who set themselves up against natur- 
al right. Under date of June 11, 1792, he thus writes to our Min- 
ister at London : 

"We entirely reject the mode which was the subject of a conver- 
sation between Mr. Morris and him, [British Minister,] which was, 
that our seamen should always carry about them certificates of 
their citizenship. This is a condition never yet submitted to by 
any nation, one with which seamen would never have the precau- 
tion to comply ; the casualties of their calling would expose them 
to the constant destruction or loss of this paper evidence, and thus, 
the British government would be armed with legal authority to 
impress the whole of our seamen. The simplest rule will be, that 
the vessel being American, shall be evidence that the seamen on 
board her are such. If they apprehend that our vessels might thus 
become asylums for the fugitives of their own nation from impress- 
gangs, the number of men to be protected by a vessel may be lim- 
ited by her tonnage, and one or two officers only be permitted to en- 
ter the vessel in order to examine the numbers on board ; but no 
press-gang should be allowed ever to go on board an American ves- 
sel, till after it shall be found that there are more than their stipula- 
ted number on board, nor till after the master shall have refused to 
deliver the supernumeraries (to be named by himself) to the press- 
officer who has come on board for that purpose ; and, even then, the 
American Consul should be called in. In order to urge a settle- 
ment of this point, before a new occasion may arise, it may not be 
amiss to draw their attention to the peculiar irritation excited on the 
last occasion, and the difficulty of avoiding our making immediate 
reprisals on their seamen here." 

On the subject of impressment, Mr. Jefferson's own private opin- 
ion was, that American bottoms should be conclusive evidence that 
all on board were American citizens, inasmuch as the right of ex- 
patriation was a natural right, the free enjoyment of which no na- 
tion had the authority to molest, with respect to any other nation, 
imless by special and mutual agreement. But the administration 
were not prepared, at this time, to carry their resistance to the prin- 
ciple, further than was necessary for the protection of their own 
seamen, without affording an asylum for others. 



328 LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

The combination of European despots against the republic of 
France, in 1793, placed the United States in a new, and to them, in- 
experienced position. The situation of a neutral nation is always 
delicate and embarrassing ; but peculiarly so, when it is connect- 
ed with the belligerent parties by extensive connnercial relations, 
and when its subjects are divided by powerful political partialities 
and antipathies towards the Powers at war. This was precise- 
ly the situation of the United States. One universal feeling of in- 
dignation at the interference of England and her allies, with the 
revolutionary struggle of France, pervaded the whole repubhcan 
party in America ; and nothing but the extraordinary firmness and 
prudence of their leader, backed of course, on this occasion, by the 
whole weight of the administration, could have prevented the gen- 
erous enthusiasm of the nation from embroiling the government in 
the foreign conflict, and from plunging its citizens into a ferocious 
and bloody war with each other. 

The phrenzy of the popular excitement in favor of France, was 
greatly increased by the intemperate character of the minister of the 
French republic, Mr. Genet. No sooner had this gentleman arriv- 
ed in the United States, than, presuming on the state of pulilic feel- 
ing, he began the design of forcing them to become a party to the war, 
by an extraordinary course of proceedings. He landed on the 8th of 
April, 1793, at Chaileston, a port so remote from his points, both of 
departure and destination, .as to excite attention ; and instead of 
proceeding directly to Philadelphia, and presenting his credentials to 
the President, he remained in Charleston five or six weeks. While 
there, he was constantly engaged in authorizing the fitting and arm- 
ing vessels in that port, enlisting men, foreigners and citizens,, and 
giving them commissions to cruise and commit hostilities on the 
nations at war with France. These vessels were taking and 
bringing prizes into our ports ; and the Consuls of France, by his 
direction, were assuming to hold courts of admiralty on them, to 
try, condemn, and authorize their sale as legal prize. All this was 
done and doing before Mr. Genet had been received and accredited 
by the President, without his consent or consultation, in defiance of 
an express proclamation by the government, and in palpable con- 
travention of the law of nations. These proceedings immediately 
called forth from the British Minister several memorials thereon ; 
to which Mr. Jeflerson replied, on the 1.5th of May, condemning, in 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 



329 



the highest degree, the transactions complained against, and assur- 
ing the Britisli Minister that the United States would take the most 
effectual measures to prevent their repetition. Mr. Genet reached 
Philadelphia the next day. His progress through the country had 
been triumphal ; and he was received at Philadelphia amidst the 
plaudits and acclamations of the people. On his presentation to 
the President, he assured him theit on account of the remote situa- 
tion of the United States, and other circumstances, France did not 
expect them to become a party in the war, but wished to see them 
preserve their prosperity and happiness in peace. But in a confer- 
ence with the Secretary of State, soon after his reception, he alluded 
to his proceedings at Charleston, and expressed a hope that the Pres- 
ident had not absolutely decided against them. He added, that he 
would Avrite the Secretary a note, justifying his conduct under the 
treaty between the two nations ; but if the President should finally 
determine otherwise, he must submit, as his instructions enjoined 
him to do what was agreeable to the Americans. 

In pursuance of his intimation, he addressed a letter to the Sec- 
retary of State, on the 27th of May, in which it appeared that he 
was far from possessing a disposition to acquiesce in the decisions of 
the government. This letter laid the foundation of a correspond- 
ence, which is confessedly unparalleled in the annals of diplomacy. 
The communications of Mr. Jefferson embody a complete system of 
national law, as applicable to the rights and obligations of neutral 
nations, and present an invaluable commentary on the logic and 
the legal interpretation of treaties. For elegance and dignity of 
composition, for coolness and energy of reasoning, for the godlike 
chastity of purpose, with which they repelled the glowing and se- 
ductive appeals of a beloved and persecuted nation, and above all. 
for that more than Roman firmness with which they resisted the 
torrent of sympathetic enthusiasm which poured ^rom the hearts of 
his own countrymen, these papers will forever remain a monument 
to the genius, wisdom, and self denying patriotism of the author. 
They embrace in themselves a volume of the American State-pa- 
pers; and a mere outline of them, would exceed the limits prescrib- 
ed to this. Aside from their momentous apphancy to the occasion, 
they derive additional importance from the consideration, that they 
formed the commencement, and the true exposition of that system 
of policy to which the United States have inflexibly adhered, through 

29 



330 ' LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

every season in which the warring Powers of the earth have placed 
them in the predicament of a neutral nation. As a circumstance of 
some curiosity, if not of some weight, it might be added, that Mr, 
Jefferson's controversy with Genet, was the first of two transactions 
only in his poUtical life, which received the open and avowed ap- 
probation of the federahsts as a party. 

The communications of Genet, on the other hand, were a tissue 
of inflammatory declamation, and indignity. To the reasonings of 
Mr. Jefferson on the obligations of the United States, to observe an 
impartial neutrality towards all the belligerent parties, he applied the 
epithet of "diplomatic subtelties." And when he sustained the prin- 
ciples advanced by him, by quotations from Vattel, and other ap- 
proved jurisconsults. Genet called them "the aphorisms of Vattel," 
&.C. " You oppose," said he, "to my complaints, to my just reclam- 
ations, upon the footing of right, the private or public opinion of 
the President of the United States ; and this egis not appearing to 
you sufficient, you bring forward aphorisms of Vattel, to justify or 
excuse infractions committed on positive treaties." And he added, 
" do not punish the brave individuals of your nation who arrange 
themselves under our banner, knowing perfectly well, that no law 
of the United States gives to the government the sole power of ar- 
resting their zeal, by acts of rigor. The Americans are free; they 
are not attached to the glebe, like the slaves of Russia ; they may 
change their situation when they please, and by accepting at this 
moment the succor of their arms in the habit of tramphng on ty- 
rants, we do not commit the plagiat of which you speak. The true 
robbery, the true crime woidd be to enchain the courage of these 
ffood citizens, of these sincere friends of the best of causes." At oth- 
er times he would address himself to the political feehngs of Mr. 
Jefferson himself, whom he had been induced to consider his per- 
sonal friend, and who, he said, " had initiated him into mysteries 
which had inflamed his hatred against all those who aspire to an 
absolute power." 

During the whole time, also, Mr. Genet was industriously engag- 
ed in disseminating seditious addresses among the people, and at- 
tempting, by every means in his power, to inflame their passions, 
already sufficiently excited, and induce them to arise in arms 
against the enemies of France. What an ungenerous moment 



OF TH0MA3 JEFFERSON, 



331 



was this, to put to the test the sensibilities of the American people 
for their brave and beloved ally '? 

Finally, after a controversy of several months, in the whole course 
of which, tlie mingled efliusions of arrogance and intemperance, 
were opposed to a moderation and ftrbearance which could not be 
betrayed into a single undignified expression, the American govern- 
ment came to the determination of desiring the recall of Mr. Genet. 
This delicate duty was executed by Mr. Jefferson, and iri a manner ■ 
which has doubtless united more suffrages in its favor, taking the 
world at large, than any other diplomatic performance on record. 
On the 16th of August, 1793. he addressed a letter to Mr. Morris, the 
Minister of the United States at Paris, containing an epitome of the 
whole correspondence, on both sides, assigning the reasons which 
rendered necessary the recall of Mr. Genet, and directing the case 
to be immediately laid before his government. 

This celebrated letter is an essay of sixteen pages, octavo. It 
were vain to attempt a satisfactory analysis of its contents. To a 
full and dispassionate revievr of the transactions of Mr. Genet, and 
an unanswerable vindication of the principles upon which the ad- 
ministration had conducted itself in the controversy, assurances were 
added of an unwavering attachment to France, expressed in such 
terms of unaffected sensibility, as to impress the most callous with 
the sincerity of the heart from which they flowed. The concluding 
paragraphs are too remarkable not to require an insertion. 

After introducing a series of quotations from Mr. Genet's corres- 
pondence, which he deemed too offensive to be translated into Eng- 
lish, or to merit a commentary, the author proceeded in the follow- 
ing dignified strain : 

" We draw a veil over the sensations which these expicssions ex- 
cite. No words can render them ; but they will not escape the sen- 
sibility of a friendly and magnanimous nation, who will do us jus- 
tice. We see in them neither the portrait of ourselves, nor the pencil 
of our friends ; but an attempt to embroil both ; to add still another 
nation to the enemies of his country, and to draw on both a reproach, 
which it is hoped Avill never stain the history of either. The writ- 
ten proofs, of \\'hich Mr. Genet was himself the bearer, were too un- 
equivocal to leave a doubt that the French nation are constant in 
their friendship to us. The resolves of their National Convention, 
the letters of their Executive Council attest this truth, in terms 
which render it necessary to seek in some other hypothesis, the so- 
lution of Mr. Genet's machinations against our peace and friendship. 



332 LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

"Conscious, on our part, of the same friendly and sincere dispo- 
sitions, we can with truth affirm, both for our nation and govern- 
ment, that we have never oiiiitted a reasonable occasion of mani- 
festing them. For I will not consider as of that character, opportu- 
nities of sallying forth from our ports to way-lay, rob, and murder 
defenceless merchants and others, who have done us no injury, and 
who were coming to trade with us in the confidence of our peace and 
amity. The violation of all the laws of order and morality which 
bind mankind together, would be an unacceptable oti'ering to a just 
nation. Recurring then only to recent things, after so afflicting a 
libel we recollect with satisfaction, that in the course of two years, 
by unceasing exertions, we paid up seven years' arrearages and in- 
stalments of our debt to France, which the inefficiency of our first 
form of government had suffered to be accumulating : that press- 
ing on still to the entire fulfilment of our engagements, we have 
facihtated to Mr. Genet the effect of the instalments of the present 
year, to enable him to send relief to his fellow citizens in France, 
threatened with famine : that in the first moment of the insurrec- 
tion which threatened the colony of St. Domingo, we stepped for- 
ward to their relief with arms and money, taking freely on ourselves 
the risk of an unauthorized aid, when delay would have been de- 
nial : that we have received, according to our best abilities, the 
wretched fugitives from the catastrophe of the principal town of 
that colony, who, escaping from the swords and flames of civil war, 
threw themselves on us naked and houseless, without food or 
friends, money or other means, their faculties lost and absorbed in 
the depth of their distresses : that the exclusive admission to sell 
here the prizes made by France on her enemies, in the present war, 
though unstipulated in our treaties, and unfounded in her own 
practice or in that of other nations, as we believe ; the spirit mani- 
fested by the late grand jury in their proceedings against those who 
had aided the enemies of France with arms and implements of war ; 
the expressions of attachment to his nation, with which Mr. Genet 
was welcomed on his arrival and journey from south to north, and 
our long forbearance under his gross usurpations and outrages of 
the laws and authority of our country, do not bespeak the partiali- 
ties intimated in his letters. And for these things he rewards us 
by endeavors to excite discord and distrust between our citizens 
and those whom they have entrusted with their government, be- 
tween the different branches of our government, between our nation 
and his. But none of these things, we hope, will be found in his 
power. That friendship which dictates to us to bear with his con- 
duct yet a while, lest the interests of his nation here should suffer in- 
jury, will hasten them to replace an agent, whose dispositions are 
such a misrepresentation of theirs, and whose continuance here is 
inconsistent with order, peace, respect, and that friendly correspond- 
ence which we hope will ever subsist between the two nations. 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 333 

His government will see too that the case is pressing. That it is 
impossible for two sovereign and independent authorities to be going 
on within oar territory at the same time without collision. They 
will foresee that if Mr. Gehet perseveres in his proceedings, the con- 
sequences would be so hazardous to us, the example so humiliating 
and pernicious, that we may be forced even to suspend his func- 
tions before a successor can arrive to continue them. If our citizens 
have not already been shedding each other's blood, it is not owing to 
the moderation of Mr. Genet, but to the forbearance of the govern- 
ment. 

" Lay the case then immediately before his government. Ac 
company it with assurances, which cannot be stronger than true, 
that our friendship for the nation is constant and unabating ; that 
faithful to our treaties, we have fulfilled them in every point to the 
best of our understanding; that if in any thing, however, we have 
construed them amiss, we are ready to enter into candid explana- 
tions, and to do whatever we can be convinced is right ; that in op- 
posing the extravagances of an agent, whose character they seeni 
not sufficiently to have known, we have been urged by motives of 
duty to ourselves and justice toothers, which cannot but be approv- 
ed by those who are just themselves ; and finally, that after inde- 
pendence and self-government, there is nothing we more sincerely 
wish than perpetual friendship with them." 

This impressive appeal to the justice and magnanimity of France, 
was successful. Genet was recalled, and his place supplied by 
Mr. Fauchet, who arrived in the United States in February, 1794. 

On the last day of December, 1793, Mr. Jefferson resigned the 
office of Secretary of State, and retired from political life. This 
was not a sudden resolution on his part ; nor an unexpected event 
to his country. The political disagreement between himself and 
the Secretary of the Treasury, added to his general disinclination 
to office, was the cause of his retirement. This disagreement, 
originating in a fundamental difference of opinion, was aggravated 
by subsequent collisions in the cabinet, was reflected back upon the 
people, and^ aggravated, in turn, the agitations and animosities be-- 
tween the repubUcans and federalists, of which they were respect- 
ively the leaders. 

On his first introduction upon the political theatre in New York, 
the general appearance of things, it will be recollected, inspired 
Mr. Jefferson w^ith distressing presages of the course which the ad- 
ministration would take, and of the result of his connection with it. 
The pompous levees of the President, forced on him by the high- 

29* 



334 LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

dying aristocracy with which he was sunounded, the evening- par- 
ties of the Vice President. Secretary of War, and others, which 
were flaming imitations of the pageantry and sycophantry of roy- 
aUsm ; and above all, the general tone of the table conversations, 
in which a preference of kingly over republican government was 
evidently the favorite sentiment, filled him with indescribable won- 
der and mortification. Then followed those scenes of corruption 
in the Legislature, and of gambling in the public paper, through 
the country, over which every lover of his country must weep, as 
the first and foulest stains upon her political escutcheon. Then 
came the National Bank, with the eternal precedent fixed upon us, 
of legislative expositions of the constitution subservient to the will 
and pleasure of the majority in place, — then the excise law, and 
the commencement of a system of internal taxation, which is the 
peculiar opprobium of despotism. 

No sooner had these measures passed, by which the course of 
administration was clearly indicated, than Mr. Jefferson came to 
the determination of relinquishing his connection with the govern- 
ment. Having discovered in a letter from the President, while on 
a journey to the south, that he intended to resign the administra- 
tion at the end of his first term, he decided on making that the 
date of his own retireiiient. This resolution was formed so early 
LIS April, 1791 ; and first communicated to the President in Febru- 
ary, 1792. The intelhgence came hke a shock on the mind of 
General Washington. He had long been aware of the fatal schism 
in his cabinet, and had labored with unceasing anxiety, to effect a 
reconciliation ; but that this unhappy circumstance should bring on 
the retirement of either party, was a calamity which he was not 
prepared to expect. Washington loved Jefferson ; he almost rev- 
erenced his talents ; and, as a man and private counsellor, had more 
confidence in him than any other human being. The private 
conversations held between these two great public servants, at dif- 
ferent periods during their official connection, attest the sincerity of 
their attachment to each other, and the fervor of their devotion to 
country. While both were incessantly sighing for retirement, each 
endeavored to dissuade the other from it, as an irremediable public 
calamity. 

These several conversations, which place the characters of both 
in a most amiable and interesting light, shall be grouped together. 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 335 

their substance faithfully stated, and nearly in the langua<2;e in 
which they were uttered. The first of them was on the 29th of 
February, 1792. The President had invited Mr. Jeiferson to l>reak- 
fast with him ; and after conducting him to a private room, said, 
in an aflectionate tone, that he had felt much concern at an ex- 
pression which dropped from him yesterday, and which indicated 
an intention of retiring when he should. That as to himself, many 
motives obliged him to it. He had, through the whole course of 
the war, and most particularly at the close of it, uniformly declared 
his resolution never to act again in any public station ; that he 
had already twice retired under that firm resolution ; that were 
he to continue longer in public life it might give occasion to say, 
that having tasted the sweets of oflice, he could not subsist without 
them. That he really felt himself growing old, his bodily health 
less firm, his memory, always bad, becoming worse, and perhaps 
the other faculties of his mind showing a decay to others, of which 
he was insensible himself; that this apprehension particulaly op- 
pressed him ; that he found, moreover, his activity lessened, busi- 
ness more irksome, and tranquillity become an irresistable passion. 
That he did not believe his presence necessary, since there were 
so many other characters who would do the business as well or bet- 
ter. That however much he felt himself obliged, for these reasons, 
to retire, he should consider it as unfortunate if that event should 
bring on the ^retirement of the great officers of the government ; 
and that this might produce a shock on the public mind of danger- 
ous consequence. 

Mr. Jefferson told him, that no man had ever had less desire of 
entering into public offices than himself ; that the circumstance of 
a perilous war, which brought every thing into danger, and called 
for all the services which every citizen could render, had induced 
him to undertake the administration of the government of Virginia ; 
that he had both before and after refused repeated appointments of 
Congress to go abroad in that sort of office, which, if he had con- 
sulted his own gratification, would always have been most agreea- 
ble to him ; that on resigning the government of Virginia, at the 
end of two years, he had retired with a firm resolution never more 
to appear in public life. That a domestic loss, however, occurred, 
which made him fancy that a temporary absence and change of 
scene would be expedient for him ; that he consequently accepted 



335 LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

a foreign appointment, limited to two years ; at the close of which. 
Dr. Franklin having left France, he had consented to supply his 
place, and though he continued in it for three or four years, it was 
under the constant idea of remaining only a year or two longer ; 
that the Revolution in France coming on, he had so interested him- 
self in the event of it, that when obliged to bring his family home, 
he had still an idea of returning and awaiting the close of that, 
to fix the era of his final retirement. That on his arrival here, 
he found he had been appointed to his present office, which he 
accepted with reluctance, and with a firm resolution of indulging 
his constant wish of retirement at no very distant day ; that when 
therefore he had received a letter of the President, of April 1st, 
1792, and discovered from an expression in that, his intention of 
retiring at the end of his first term, his mind was made up to make 
that the epoch of his own retirement from those labors of which he 
was heartily tired. That, however, he did not beheve there was 
any idea in either of his brethren in the administration of retiring ; 
that, on the contrary, he had perceived at a late meeting of the 
trustees of the sinking fund, that the Secretary of the Treasury 
had developed the plan he intended to pursue, and that it embrac- 
ed years in its view. 

The President said, that he considered the Treasury department 
as a much more limited one, going only to the single object of rev- 
enue, while that of Secretary of State, embracing nearly all the 
objects of administration, was much more important, and the re- 
tirement of Mr. Jefferson, therefore, would be more sensibly felt ; 
that though the government had set out with a pretty general good 
will of the public, symptoms of dissatisfaction had lately shown 
themselves far beyond what he could have expected, and to what 
height they might arise, in case of two great a change in the ad- 
ministration, could not be foreseen ; that he thought it important to 
preserve the check of his opinions particularly, in the administra- 
tion, in order to keep things in their proper channel. That with 
respect to the existing causes of public uneasiness, he thought there 
were suspicions against a particular party, which had been carried a 
great deal loo far ; there might be desires, but he did not beheve there 
were designs to transform the government into a monarchy ; that 
the main body of the people in the Eastern States were as steadily for 
republicanism as in the Southern ; that the constitution we had was 



OF THOMAS JEFFKRSON'. 



33T 



an excellent one, if we could keep it where it was : that it was in- 
deed supposed there was a party who wished to change it into a 
monarchical form, but that he could conscientiously declare there 
was not a man in the United States, who would set his face more 
decidedly against it than himself. [Here Mr. Jefferson interrupted 
him by saying : 'No rational man in (he United States suspects you 
of any other disposition ; but there does not pass a week, in which 
we cannot prove declarations dropping from the monarchical party, 
that our government is good for nothing, is a milk and water thing 
which cannot support itself, we must knock it down, and set up 
something of more energy.'] The President said, if that was the 
case, he thought it a proof of their insanity, for that the republican 
spirit of the Union was so manifest and so solid, it was astonishing- 
how any one could expect to move it. He proceeded to express his 
earnest wish that himself and Hamilton could coalesce in the meas- 
ures of the government; that he had proposed the same thing to Ham- 
ilton, who had expressed his readiness. He reiterated his extreme 
wretchedness in office, went lengthily into the newspaper attacks 
upon him for levees, 6lc. explained how he had been entrapped in- 
to them by the persons he consulted in New York, and declared 
if he could but know what the sense of the public was, he would 
most cheerfully conform to it. He expressed his grief at the op- 
position which had arisen to the administration, and considered it an 
opposition to himself ; that though indeed he had signed many acts 
which he did not approve in all their parts, yet he had never put 
his name to one which he did not think, on the whole, was eligible. 
That as to the bank, a difference of opinion ought to be tolerated, 
until there was some infallible criterion of reason. He said not a 
word on the corruption of the legislature, but defended the assump- 
tion, and justified the excise law. He did not believe the discon- 
tents had extended far from the seat of government, but if they 
were more extensive than he supposed, it might be, that the desire 
for his remaining in the government was not general ; and he 
wished to be better informed on this head. 

Mr. Jefferson replied, that in his opinion there was only a single 
source of these discontents. Though they had indeed appeared to 
spread themselves over the War department also, yet he considered 
that as an overflowing only from their real reservoir, to wit, the 
Treasury department. That a system had there been contrived, 



338' 



LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 



for deluging- ihe States with paper money, for withdrawing out 
citizens from the pursuits of commerce, manufactures, and other 
branches of useful industry, to occupy themselves and their capitals 
in a species of gambling, destructive of morality, and which had 
insinuated its poison into the government itself. That it w'as a 
f:ict as certainly known, as that they were then conversing, that 
particular members of tlie legislature, while those laws were on the 
carpet, had feathered their nests Avith paper, had then voted for the 
.laws, and constantly since lent all the energy of their talents, and 
instrumentality of their oliices, to the estabhshment a'nd enlarge- 
ment of this system ; that they had chained it about our necks 
fur a great length of time, and in order to keep the game in their 
hands, had, from time to time, aided in making such legislative 
constructions of the constitution, as made it a very different thing 
from what the people thought they had submitted to ; that they had 
now brought forward a proposition far beyond any one ever yet 
advanced, and to which the eyes of many were turned, as the de- 
cision which was to let us know whether we live under a limited 
or an unlimited government. He alluded to a proposition in the 
report on manufactures, which, under color of giving hoiinties for 
the encouragement of particular manufactures, meant to establish 
the doctrine, that the power given by the constitution to collect tax- 
es to provide for the general welfare, permitted Congress to take 
every thing under their management which tliey should deem for 
the public welfare ; consequently, that the subsequent enumera- 
tion of their powers was not the description to which resort must be 
had, and did not at all constitute the limits of their authority ; 
that this was a very different question from that of the bank, which 
was thought an incident to an enumerated power. He observed, 
that though the people were sound, there was a numerous sect who 
had monarchy in contemplation, and that the Secretary of the 
Treasury was one of these. That he had heard him say our con- 
stitution was a shilly-shally thing, of mere milk and water, which 
could not last, and was only good as a step to something better. 
That when we reflected, that he had endeavored in the Convention 
to make an English constitution of it, and wdien failing in that, we 
saw all his measures tending to bring it into the same form, it was 
natural for him to be jealous ; and particulaily, when we saw that 
these measures had established corruption in the legislature, wher« 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 339 

there was a squadron devoted to the nod of the Treasury, doing 
whatever he had directed, and ready to do what he should direct. 
That if the equiUbrium of the three great bodies, legislative, exec- 
utive and- judiciary, could be preserved, if the legislature could be 
kept independent, he should never fear the result of our govern- 
ment ; but that he could not be otherwise than uneasy, when he 
saw that the executive had swallowed up the legislative branch. 
As to the establishment of our credit, the vaunted object of the 
financial system, &c. all that was necessary for this purpose, was 
an efficient government and an honest one, declaring it. would sa- 
credly pay its debts, laying taxes for this purpose and applying them 
to it. He enforced the great topic of all his conversations and his 
letters, to wit, the importance of the President's continuing in office 
another term ; that his presence was absolutely necessary ; that he 
was the only man in the United States, who possessed the confi- 
dence of the whole ; that the government was founded in opinion 
and confidence, and the longer he remained, the stronger would be- 
come the habits of the people in submitting to it, and thinking it a 
thing to be maintained ; that there was no other person, who would 
be thought any thing more than the head of a party. That the 
discontents, which were more extensive than the President suppos- 
ed, were not directed against him, but against the subordinate mem- 
bers of the administration ; that these discontents had, indeed, 
spread over the whole South ; that they were grounded on seeing 
their judgments and interests sacrificed to those of the Eastern 
States, on every occasion, and their belief that it was the effect of a 
mercenary squadron in Congress, at the command of the Treasury. 
That as to himself the same reasons did not operate to demand his 
continuance in the administration ; that his concurrence was of 
much less importance than the President seemed to imagine ; that 
he kepthimself aloof from all cabal and correspondence on the sub- 
ject of the government, and saw and spoke with as few as he could. 
That as to a coalition with Mr. Hamilton, if by that was meant, 
that either was to sacrifice his general system to the other, it was im- 
possible. They had both, undoubtedly, formed their conclusions 
after the most mature consideration, and principles conscientiously 
adopted, could not be relinquished on either side. His devout wish 
and prayer was, to see both Houses of Congress cleansed of all per- 
sons interested in the bank or public stocks ; and that a pure Legisla- 



340 LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

tine being given to the country, he should always be ready to acqui- 
esce under their determinations, even if contrary to his own opin- 
ions ; for that he subscribed to the principle that the will of the ma- 
jority, honestly expressed, should give the law.* 

On the 6th of August, 1793, the President called on Mr. Jeffer- 
son at his house in the country. He had received a letter from him, 
of July 31st, announcing his intention of resigning at the close of 
the following month ; and he made that letter the painful subject 
of his visit. He now expressed his repentance at not having re- 
signed himself,! and how painfully it was increased by seeing that 
he was to be deserted by those on whose aid he most counted ; that 
he did not know where he should look to find characters to fill the 
offices ; that mere talents did not suffice for the department of State, 
but it required a person conversant in foreign affairs, and acquaint- 
ed with foreign courts ; that Colonel Hamilton had a few weeks 
before written to him, informing that private ,as well as public rea- 
sons had brought him to the determination of retiring, and that he 
should do it towards the close of the next session. He expressed 
great apprehensions at the fermentation which seemed to be work- 
ing in the public mind ; that many descriptions of persons, actuated 
by different causes, appeared to be uniting ; what it would end in 
he knew not; a new Congress was to assemble, more numer- 
ous, perhaps of a different spirit ; the first expressions of their sen- 
timent would be important ; if Mr. Jefferson would only continue 
with him to the end of that, it would relieve him considerably. 

Mr. Jefferson expressed to him, in addition to his excessive re- 
pugnance to public life, the particular uneasiness of his present situ- 
ation, where the laws of society obliged him always to move exactly 
in the circle which he knew to bear him pecuHar hatred ; to wit, 
among the wealthy aristocrats, the merchants connected closely 
with England, the new created paper fortunes ; that thus sur- 
rounded, his words were caught, multiJDlied, misconstrued, and even 



* Ana. 

+ His first term had expired on the 4th of March, 1793. Havinsr consented to 
a re-election, at the earnest solicitations of all parties, he again received the 
unanimous vote of the nation. Mr. Adams was also re-elected Vice-President, 
but not with equal unanimity. Of one hundred and thirty -two votes, Mr. Ad- 
ams had seventy-seven, and Geo. Clinton of N. York, the republican candidate, 
lifty. The Slates of Virginia, New-York, North Carolina, and Georgia, were 
unanimous for Mr. Clinton. Kentucky could not forget the great protector of 
the West, and gave her vote for Mr. Jefferson, although he was not a candidate. 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 341 

fabricated and spread abroad to his injury ; that he saw also there 
was such an opposition of views between himself and another part 
of the administration, as to render it pecuUarly unpleasing, and to 
destroy the necessary harmony ; that he beheved the next Congress 
would attempt nothing material, but to render their own body in- 
dependent ; that the republican party, so far as his knowledge ex- 
tended, were firm in their dispositions to support the present frame 
of government ; and that on the whole, no crisis existed, which 
threatened any danger. 

The President entreated him to remain in until the end of an- 
other quarter, the last of December ; which would carry them 
through the difficulties of the present year, by which time he was 
satisfied the affairs of Europe would be settled ; either France 
would be overwhelmed by the Confederacy, or the latter would give 
up the contest. By that time, too. Congress would have manifested 
its character. He went lengthily into the difficulties of naming a 
successor, canvassed the characters of various conspicuous persona- 
ges, without being satisfied with any of them, except Mr. Madison, 
whom he despaired of obtaining ; and concluded, by earnestly de- 
siring Mr. Jefferson to take time and consider whether he could not 
continue with him another quarter ; for that, hke a man going to 
the gallows, he was anxious to put it off as long as he could ; but 
if he persisted, he must then look about him, and do the best he 
could towards providing a sviccessor.* 

With the last pressing solicitation of the President, Mr. Jefferson 
at length complied ; and accordingly postponed his resignation 
until the last day of the year, 1793, as before stated. The political 
effects upon the government of the United States, of the retirement 
of this minister, realized the worst apprehensions of General Wash- 
ington. They even verified the worst predictions of the opponents 
of the administration. They broke out wildly, and spread them- 
selves with accumulative and disastrous potency, through the re- 
maining period of the eighteenth century ; when they were sud- 
denly brought to a stand by the triumphant interposition of the peo- 
ple, in a peaceable and constitutional way. Some developments 
of that dark history, which have been left by Mr. Jefl^erson, will 
appear in the succeeding chapter. Meanwhile, the following para- 



Ana. 

30 



342 LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

^rapli, extracted from his private papers, will not be thought irrele- 
vant or uniustructive. 

"From the moment of my retiring from the administration, the 
federalists got unchecked hold of General Washington. His mem- 
ory was already sensibly impaired by age, the firm tone of mind for 
which he had been remarkable, was beginning to relax, its energy 
was abated, a listlessness of labor, a desire for tranquillity had crept 
on him, and a willingness to let others act, and even think for him. 
Like the rest of mankind, he was disgusted with atrocities of the 
French revolution, and was not sufficiently aware of the ditference 
between the rabble who were used as instrumentsof their perpetra- 
tion, and the steady and rational chai'acter of the American people, 
in which he had not sufficient confidence. The opposition too, of 
the republicaris to the British treaty, and the zealous support of the 
federalists in that unpopular but favorite measure of theirs, had 
made him all their own. Understanding, moreover, that I disap- 
proved of that treaty, and copiously nourished with falsehoods by a 
malignant neighbor of mine, who ambitioned to be his correspond- 
ent, he had become alienated from myself personall)*, as from the 
republican body generally of his fellow citizens ; and he wrote the 
letters to Mr. Adams and Mr. Carroll, over which, in devotion to his 
imperishable fame, we must for ever weep as monuments of mortal 
decay." 



CHAPTER XI. 

The history of the United States from the commencement of the 
year 1794, to the memorable epoch of 1800, is a history of unre- 
mitting struggles between the advocates of monarchy and repub- 
licanism. 

This political drama, of which the present recollection is but as a 
dream of the night, was scarcely less terrible in its course, or less 
momentous in its consequences, than the internal conflict of the 
Revolution. The latter, by an unexampled exertion of moral agen- 
cy, revolutionized the government fiom a monarchical to a repub- 
lican structure ; the former, by the instrumentality of the same 
peaceable power, against the same political antagonists, saved it 
from retrograding into its original deformity. That this was the 
real ground and nature of the contest, is too notorious to be contro- 
verted. Without resorting to the private revelations of a principal 



OP THOMAS JEFFERSON. 



343 



actor,* touching the secret transactions of the government, and the 
avowed opinions of its predominant agents, or without recurring to 
the newspaper confiagrations of that tempestuous season, the pubUc 
and written history of the United States abounds with satisfactory 
testimony on tliis point. 

The third Congress of the United States, the pohticai character 
of which had been anticipated with great alarm by the monarchical 
party, and with some uneasiness hj the President, assembled on 
the 3d of December, 1793. Notwithstanding the atrocious turn of 
the French Revolution, with which the republican party had be- 
come identified, irom their sympathy in its -principles only, the 
last elections had secured a republican majority in the popular 
branch of the Legislature ; but, as corruption had become the estab- 
lished principle, at head quarters, the majority was too small not to 
be easy of debauchery, on questions of vital importance to the party 
which preponderated in the administration. The political charac- 
ter of the Senate remained essentially unaltered. 

At this session, it will be recollected, the celebrated Report of Mr. 
Jefferson on Commerce and Navigation, was submitted to Congress. 
The comparative expose which this document presented, of the 
state of our relations with England and France, displayed in such 
vivid and incontrovertible contrast the conduct of those governments 
towards the United States, as had an electric effect iipon the ele- 
ments of the two political parties. The monarchists, who were 
chained in theory to the British Constitution, and embarked in the 
design of assimulating ours to that, whose feehngs and interests 
were essentially British, considered the Report as an insidious attack 
upon their patron nation, and an unmanly truckling to France. 
The republicans, on the other hand, were gratified at seeing a true 
exposition of our foreign relations held up to the view of the nation; 
and they espoused with ardor the principle of commercial discrim- 
ination recommended by the author. 

This principle had been a favorite one with Mr. Jefferson, from 
the origin of the government. In his letters to America, while in 
France, he had constantly and most strenuously enforced the idea. 
To make the interest of every nation on the globe, stand surety for 
its justice to us, and to make injury to them follow injury to us, in 

* JeiFerson's Ana, which abounds in irresistable proofs on this head. 



o44 LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

equal degree, and as surely as effect follows its cause, was his first, 
and uniform doctrine through life. With respect to the British gov- 
ernment, in particular, his opinion was, that nothing would force 
them to do justice, but the loud voice of their people, and that this 
could only be excited by distressing their commerce. Besides, it 
would argue injustice, not to say ingratitude, on our part, to admit 
every nation to an equal participation in the benefits of our com- 
merce, whilst one loaded us with freedoms, liberalities and courte- 
sies, and another with burthens, prohibitions and execrations. 
This was precisely the case as between England and France. In 
a letter to Mr. Madison, dated Paris, 1789, Mr, Jefferson wrote : 

" When of two nations, the one has engaged herself in a ruinous 
war for us, has spent her blood and money to save us, has opened 
her bosom to us in peace, and received us almost on the footing of 
her own citizens, while the other has moved heaven, earth, and hell 
to .exterminate us in war, has insulted us in all her councils in 
peace, shut her doors to us in every part where her interests would 
admit it, libeled us in foreign nations, endeavored to poison them 
against the reception of our most precious commodities ; to place 
these two nations on a footing, is to give a great deal more to one 
than to the other, if the maxim be true, that to make unequal quan- 
tities equal, you must add more to one than the other. To say, in 
excuse, that gratitude is never to enter into the motives of national 
conduct, is to revive a principle which has been buried for centu- 
ries, Vi'ith its kindred principles of the lawfulness of assassination, 
poison, perjury, (fcc. All of these were legitimate principles in the 
dark a""e's which intervened between ancient and modern civiliza- 
tion but exploded and held in just horror in the eighteenth century. 
I know but one code of morality for men, whether acting singly or 
i:ollectively. He who says I will be a rogue when I act in compa- 
ny with a hundred others, but an honest man when I act alone, 
will be believed in the former assertion, but not in the latter." 

His ideas on comixierce, and the line of conduct proper to be ob- 
served towards France and England, are stated more at length in a 
letter to Elbridge Gerry, about this time : 

" I do sincerely wish with you, that we could take our stand on a 
ground perfectly neutral and independent towards all nations. It 
has been my constant object through my public life : and with re- 
spect to the English and French, particularly, I have too often ex- 
pressed to the former my wishes, and made to them propositions, 
verbally and in writing, officially and privately, to official and pri- 
vate characters, for them to doubt of my views, if they could be 
content with equality. Of this they are in possession of several 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 345 

written and formal proofs, in my own hand-writing. But they have 
wished a monopoly of commerce and influence with us ; and they 
have in fact obtained it. When Ave take notice that theirs is the 
workshop to which we go for all we want ; that Avith them centre 
either immediately or ultimately all the labors of our hands and 
lands ; that to them belongs either openly or secretly the great mass 
of our navigation ; that even the factorage of their affairs here, is 
kept to themselves by factitious citizenships ; that these foreign and 
false citizens now constitute the great body of what are called our 
merchants, fill ovu" sea-ports, are planted in every little town and 
district of the interior country, sway every thing in the former pla- 
ces by their own votes, and those of their dependents, in the latter, 
by their insinuations and the influence of their ledgers ; that they 
are advancing fast to a monopoly of our banks and public funds, 
and thereby placing our public finances under their control ; that 
they have in their alliance the most influential characters in and 
out of office ; when they have shown that by all these bearings on 
the different branches of the government, they can force it to pro- 
ceed in whatever direction they dictate, and bend the interests of 
this country entirely to the will of another ; when all this, I say, is 
attended to, it is impossible for us to say we stand on independent 
ground, impossible for a free mind not to see and to groan under the 
bondage in which it is bound. If any thing after this could excite 
surprise, it would be that they had been able so far to throw dust in 
the eyes of our own citizens, as to fix on those who wish merely to 
recover self government the charge of subserving one foreign influ- 
ence because they resist submission to another. But they possess 
our printing presses, a powerful engine in their government of us. 
At this very moment [1797] they would have drawn us into a war 
on the side of England, had it not been for the failure of her bank. 
Such was their open and loud cry, and that of their gazettes, till this 
event. After plunging us in all the broils of the European nations, 
there would remain but one act to close our tragedy, that is, to break 
up our Union ; and even this they have ventured seriously and so- 
lemnly to propose and maintain by arguments in a Connecticut pa- 
per. I have been happy, however, in beheving, from the stifling of 
this effort, that that dose was found too strong, and excited as much 
repugnance there as it did hoiror in the other parts of our country, 
and that whatever follies we may be led into as to foreign nations, 
Ave shall never give up our Union, the last anchor of our hope, and 
that alone which is to prevent this heavenly country from becoming 
an arena of gladiators. Much as T abhor Avar, and view it as the 
greatest scourge of mankind, and anxiously as I wish to keep out 
of the broils of Europe, I Avould yet go Avith my brethren in these, 
.rather than separate from them. But I hope we may still keep 
clear of them, notAvithstanding our present thraldom, and that time 
may be given us to reflect on the aAvful crisis we have passed 

30* 



346 LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

ihiough, and to find some means of shielding ourselves in future 
from foreign influence, political, commercial, or in whatever other 
form it may be attempted. I can scarcely withhold myself from 
joining in the wish of Silas Deane, that there were an ocean of fire 
between us and the old world." 

The sentiment of these letters was precisely in unison with Mr. 
Jefierson's commercial Report ; and for this he was accused of ser- 
vility to France, pronounced the High Priest of jacobinism, and 
branded with every epithet of scurrility, which the genius of vitu- 
peration could invent ! 

On the 4th of January, 1794, the House resolved itself into a 
committee of the whole, on the report of the Secretary of State rela- 
tive to the privileges and restrictions of the commerce of the United 
States ; when Mr. Madison arose, and, after some prefatory obser- 
vations, submitted a series of resolutions for the consideration of the 
members. 

These celebrated resolutions were predicated on the principle of 
commercial discrimination, and embraced the complete idea of Mr. 
Jefferson's Report. They imposed an additional duty on the manu- 
factures, and on the tonnage of vessels, of nations having no com- 
mercial treaty with the United States ; reduced the duties already 
uiiposed by law on the tonnage of vessels belonging to nations hav- 
ing such commercial treaty ; and reciprocated the restrictions which 
were imposed on American navigation. The last of the resolutions 
declared, that provision ought to be made, for ascertaining the loss- 
es sustained by American citizens, from the operation of particular 
regulations of any country, contravening the law of nations; and 
that these losses be reimbursed, in the first instance, out of the addi- 
tional duties on the manufactures and vessels of the nation estab- 
lishing such regulations. Long and acrimonious discussions suc- 
ceeded, Oil these propositions ; and on the 8th of February, the first 
was adopted by a majority of five. 

A motion was then made by the Anglican party, to amend the 
second by extending its operation to all nations, without discrimin- 
ation. This motion was superseded by another, from the republi- 
can side, exempting all nations from its operation, except Great 
Britain. This brought the contest to a focus ; and, apprehen- 
sive of the result of such a proposition, even if adopted, the advo- 
cates of discrimination moved a postponment of the whole subject* 
imtil the 1st of March, which was carried. 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSOX. 347 

In the mean time, intelligence anived of additional British ag- 
gressions on our connnerce ; and both parties became sensible that 
something must be done. The repubUcans were in favor of com- 
mercial retahation, as the most effectual weapon of resistance, and 
the only one which the crisis of affairs demanded ; the federalists, 
though they deprecated the possibility of an open rupture with Great 
Britain, yet preferred even the horrors and desolations of war, to 
what they deemed a sacrifice of their patron nation to the interests 
of her rival. They thought it a favorable opportunity, also, to push 
for a standing army. A proposition was accordingly submitted to 
this effect ; and also to empower the President to lay an embargo 
for thirty days, should the welfare of the country, in his opinion, 
require it. The former was negatived ; the latter prevailed, on the 
26th of March. 

But the advocates of commercial retaliation were not to be de- 
terred from tlieir course by any of these feints and diversions. The 
embargo, shoidd it ever be carried into effect, which indeed was 
never intended by the movers themselves, would, besides distressing 
our own commerce, affect the interests of all foreign nations alike ; 
whereas it was Great Britain alone, who merited the scourge. Mr. 
Madison, therefore, frequently signified his determination to call up 
the discriminating resolutions, unless gentlemen had something 
more effectual to propose. Whereupon, sundry movements and 
counter movements were attempted, which produced violent alterca- 
tions, but ended in nothing. Pending the agitation, however, fresh 
causes of irritation supervened, which excited the republicans to a 
bolder pitch of proceeding. Mr. Madison's resolutions were not con- 
sidered strong enough. They gave way, therefore, to a proposition 
submitted by Mr. Clark, on the 7th of April, declaring that, until 
the British government should make restitution for all losses and 
damages sustained by American citizens from British armed vessels, 
contrary to the law of nations, and also, until the western posts be 
given up, all commercial intercourse between the United States 
and Great Britain, so far as respects the products of Great Britain 
and Ireland, should be prohibited. This proposition created a tre-^ 
mendous excitement ; the debates were impassioned, tempestuous; 
at length, the moment of trial approached, and no longer a doubt 
existed of the passage of the resolution. 



348 LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

At this crisis, the monarchical federalists resolved on an act of ex- 
traordinary boldness, in the character of executive usurpation. 
They went to the President and engaged his interference in oppo- 
sition to the proceedings of the House, by nominating an Envoy 
Extraordinary to the British Court ! Sensible of their present as- 
cendency in the Senate, and uncertain of its continuance, they 
meant, by forming a commercial treaty with Great Britain analo- 
gous to their principles and feelings, to erect a permanent barrier 
against the power of the Legislature to establish a different system 
of policy towards that nation. It was deemed unsafe to trust the bu- 
siness in democratic hands. John Jay was accordingly nominated 
by the President to proceed on this extraordinary mission ; and, af- 
ter a vigorous but desperate opposition, was confirmed by the Senate. 
Intelligence of this proceeding of the President, was received with 
regret and marked disapprobation hj the republican members of 
the House. They regarded it as an arbitrary interposition of the 
executive arm, to arrest the adoption of measures, which were man- 
ifestly in accordance with the sense of the people. They were re- 
solved not to be diverted from their course, but to testify, at least, 
the independence of their ])ody. Mr. Clark's proposition was re- 
sumed, and the debates renewed with increased acrimony. After a 
slight modification of its principles, the resolution was adopted on 
the 23d of April. But the bill was rejected in the Senate, by the 
casting vote of the Vice President. 

Thus, all attempts to humble the maritime despotism of Great 
Britain, by making her feel the scorpion lash of her own policy, 
were defeated by the preponderating influence of British interest 
and monarchical principles ; and Mr. Jay was dispatched on the 
humiliating errand of s\ipplicating negotiation at the feet of a mon- 
arch, who had invariably spurned at negotiation, and rioted in unin- 
terrupted aggression upon the rights of the ocean. The result of 
this mission was the famous Jay Treaty, so called, which was " re- 
ally nothing more," in the language of Mr. Jefferson, "than a treaty 
of alliance between England and the Anglomen of this country, 
against the Legislature and people of the United States." The re- 
maining history of that affair is better known, and need not here be 
repeated. This single transaction will serve as a specimen, though 
a very faint one, of the madness of the British monarchical faction. 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON-. 349 

through the remainder of the present, and the whole of the succeed- 
ing- administration. 

Daring these animated proceedings in Congress, which were set 
in motion by his commercial Report, Mr. Jefiferson was in the bo- 
som of retirement at Monticello. After five and twenty years' con- 
tinual employment in the public service, with every wish of per- 
sonal ambition more tiian gratified, he returned, v/ith infinite appe- 
tite, to that line of hfe which had always been most congenial to his 
mind, and from which he was resolved never again to be divorced. 
In answer to a letter of the Secretary of State, soon after his resig- 
nation, containing an invitation of the President, pressing his return 
to the public councils, he wrote : "No circumstances, my dear Sir, 
will ever more tempt me to engage in any thing public. I thought 
inyself perfectly fixed in this determination when I left Philadel- 
phia, but every day and hour since has added to its inflexibility. 
It is a great pleasure to me to retain the esteem and approliaticn of 
tlie President, and this forms the only ground of any reluctance at 
being unable to comply Avith every wish of his. Pray convey these 
sentiments and a thousand more to him, which my situation does 
not permit me to go into."' 

In the cultivation of his farm, Avith which he was at all times 
extravagantly enamored, and to which he was now intently devo- 
ted, Mr. Jefferson was as philosophical and original, as in every 
other department of business to which his attention Avas turned. 
On and around the mountain, on which Monticello is situated, was 
an estate of about 5000 acres, Avhich he owned ; of Avhich, eleven 
hundred and twenty acres only Avere under cultivation. A ten 
years' abandonment of his lands to the ravages of overseers, had 
brought on them a degree of degradation, far beyond what he had 
expected ; and determined him on the folloAving plan for retrieving 
them from the wretched condition in Avhich he found them. He 
divided all his lands under culture, into four farms, and every farm 
into seven fields, of forty acres. Each farm, therefore, consisted of 
two hundred and eighty acres. He established a system of rotation 
in cropping, Avhich embraced seven years ; and this was the reason 
for the division of each farm into seven fields. In the first of these 
years, wheat was cultivated ; in the second, Indian corn ; in the 
third, peas or potatoes ; in the fourth, vetches ; in the fifth, Avheat ; 
and in the sixth and seventh, clover. Thus each of his fields 



350 LIFE, WRITING.^', AZ^D OPINIONS 

yielded some produce every year, and the rotation of culture, while 
it prepared the soil for the succeeding crop, increased its produce. 
Each farm, under the direction of a particular steward or bailiff", 
was cultivated by four negroes, four negresses, four oxen, and four 
horses. On each field was constructed a barn sufficiently capacious 
to hold its produce in grain and forage. A few extracts from his 
private correspondence, at this period, will show how completely 
his mind v^'as abstracted from the political world, and absorbed in 
the occupaLions and enjoyments of hi? rural retreat. 

To James Madison. — "I long to see you. I am proceeding in 
my agiiculturni plans with a slow but sure step. To get under full 
way will require tour or live years. But patience and perseverance 
will accomplish it. My little essay in red clover, the last year, ha^ 
had the most encouraging success. I sowed then about forty acres. 
I have sowed this year about one hundred and tw^enty, which the 
rain now falhng comes very opportunely on. From one hundred 
and sixty to t^vo hundred acres, \\ ill be my yearly sowing. The 
secd-ljox described in the agricultural transactions of New- York, re- 
duces the expense of seeding from six shillings to two shillings and 
three pence the acre, and does the business better than is possible to 
be done l)y the human hand." 

To \\. B. Giles. — '• 1 sincerely congratulate you on the great 
prosperities of our two first allies, the French and Dutch. If I 
could but see them now at peace with the rest of their continent, I 
should have little doubt of dining with Pichegru in London, next 
autumn ; for I believe I should be tempted to leave my clover for 
a while, and go and hail the dawn of liberty and republicanism in 
that island. I shall be rendered very happy by^ the visit you prom- 
ise me. The only thing wanting to make me completely so, is the 
more frequent society of my friends. It is the more wanting, as I 
a|n become moi'e firmly fixed to the glebe. If you visit me as a 
farmer, it must be as a condisciple ; for I am but a learner, an eager 
one indeed, but 3^et desperate, being too old to learn a new art. 
HoW'ever, I am as much delighted and occupied with it, as if I was 
the greatest adept. I shall talk with you about it from morning till 
night, and put you on very short allowance as to political aliment. 
ISow and then a pious ejaculation for the French and Dutch repub- 
licans, returning with due despatch to clover, potatoes, wheat, &c." 

ToM. PactE. — "It was not in my power to attend atFredricks- 
burg according to the kind invitation in your letter, and in that of 
Mr. Ogilvie. The heat of the weather, the business of the farm, to 
which I have made myself necessary, forbade it; and to give one 
round reason for all, mature samis, I have laid up my Rosinante 
in his stall, before his unfitness for the road shall expose liira faltering 



OF THOMAS JEFFRSOX. 351 

to the \vorld. But why did not I answer you in time? Because, 
in truth, I am encouraging myself to grow lazy, and I was sure you 
would ascribe the delay to any thing sooner than a w^ant of affection 
or respect to you, for this was not among the possible causeg. In 
truth, if any thing could ever induce me to sleep another night out 
of my own house, it would have been your friendly invitation and 
my sohcitude for the subject of it, the education of our youth. I do 
most anxiously wish to see the highest degrees of education given 
to the higher degrees of genius, and to all degrees of it, so much as 
may enable them to read and understand what is going on in the 
world, and to keep their part of it going on right : for nothing can 
keep it right but their own vigilant and distrustful superintendence." 

To E. Randolph. — "I think it is Montaigne who has said, that 
ignorance is the softest pillow on which a man can rest his head. I 
am sure it is true as to every thing political, and shall endeavor to 
estrange myself to every thing of that character. I indulge myself 
on one political topic only, that is, in declaring to my coimtrymen 
the shameless corruption of a portion of the Representatives in the 
first and second Congresses, and their implicit devotion to the treas- 
ury. I think 1 do good in this, because it may produce exertions to 
reform the evil, on the success of which the form of the government 
is to depend." 

With the peaceful operations of agriculture, Mr. Jefferson combined 
another gratification which divided his heart equally with them — to 
wit, the pursuit of science. In compUment to his extraordinary pas- 
sion for philosophy, and his exalted attainments in science, he was 
about this time, appointed President of the American Philosophical 
Society, the oldest and most distinguished institution in the United 
States. This honor had been first conferred on Dr. Frankhn, and 
afterwards on Rittenhouse, at whose death Mr. Jefferson was chosen. 
His sensibility to this mark of distinction, was more profound than 
he had ever felt on any occasion of political preferment. " The suf- 
frage of a body," said he in reply, " which comprehends whatever 
the American world lias of distinction in philosophy and science in 
general, is the most flattering incident of my life, and that to which 
I am the most sensible. My satisfaction would be complete, were 
it not for the consciousness that it is far beyond my titles. I feel 
no qualification for this distinguished post, but a sincere zeal for all 
the objects of our institution, and an ardent desire to see knowledge 
so disseminated through the mass of mankind, that it may, at 
length, reach even the extremes of society, beggars, and kings." 



\ 



352 LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

Of this Society he was the pride and ornament. He presided 
over it for a number of years with great efficiency and eclat, eleva- 
ting its character, and extending its operations, by tljose means which 
his enlarged acquaintance with science, and the literary world, en- 
abled him to comiTjand. His constant attendance at its meetings, 
Avhile he resided in Philadelphia, gave them an interest which had 
not been excited for a number of years. Science, under his aus- 
pices, received a fresh impulse, as will appear by consulting the 
Transactions of that period, which were enriched by many valu- 
able contributions from himself. 

But it was impossible for Mr. Jefferson utterly to extinguish that 
inbred fervor of republicanism for which he was so remarkable, or 
those anxieties for its preservation and purity, which \veighed on 
him so heavily, at times. He had left Philadelphia net without 
some inquietude for the future destinies of the government, yet with 
a confidence so peculiar to himself, in every emergency, as never 
permitted him to doubt the final result of the experiment. Some 
personal concern, also, for the fate of his commercial Report, which 
he had left unacted upon, occasionally obtruded itself upon his re- 
tirement. The sensations excited in his mind, on the first intelli- 
gence of that absurd drama in Congress, which immediately suc- 
ceeded his departure, and which resulted in the nomination of an 
Envoy Extraordinary to the British Court, are liberally displayed 
in his letters of that date. His observations on the turbulent pro- 
ceedings of that session, and its principal actors, on the memorable 
" Jay treaty," and its effects upon political parties, and on the gen- 
eral aspect of the public affairs during the years 1794, '95, and '96, 
are worthy of all consideration. 

To James Madison. — "I have been particularly gratified by 
the receipt of the papers containing yours and Smith's discussion of 
your regulating propositions. These debates had not been seen 
here but in a very short and mutilated form. I am at no loss 
to ascribe Smith's speech to its true father. Every tittle of it is Ham- 
ilton's except the introduction. There is scarcely any thing there 
which I have not heard from him in our various private, though offi- 
cial discussions. The very turn of the arguments is the same, and 
others will see as well as myself that the style is Hamilton's. The 
sophistry is too fine, too ingenious, even to have been comprehended 
by Smith, much less devised by him. His reply shows he did not 
understand his first speech ; as its general inferiority proves its Jegit^ 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 353 

imacy, as evidently as it does the bastardy of the original. Yoii 
know we had understood that Hamilton had prepared a counter re- 
port, [on conniierce,] and that some of his humble servants in the 
Senate were to move a reference to him in order to produce it. But 
I suppose they thought it would have a better effect, if fired oil' in 
the House of Representatives. I find the report, however, so fully 
justified, that the anxieties with which I left it are perfectly quieted. 
In this quarter, all espouse your propositions with ardor, and with- 
out a dissenting voice. * * * As to the naval armament, the 
land armament, and the marine fortifications which are in question 
with you, I have no doubt they will all be carried. Not that the 
monocrats and papermen in Congress want war ; but they want ar 
mies and debts ; and though we may hope that the sound part of 
Congress is now so augmented as to insure a majority in cases of 
general interest merely, yet I have always observed that in ques- 
tions of expense, where members may hope either for offices or jobs 
for themselves or their friends, some few will be debauched, and that 
is sufficient to turn the decision where a majority is, at most, but 
small. I have never seen a Philadelphia paper since I left it, till 
those you enclosed me ; and I feel myself so thoroughly weaned 
from the interest I took in the proceedings there, while there, that I 
have never had a wish to see one, and believe that 1 shall never take 
another newspaper of any sort. I find my mind totally absorbed 
in my rural occupations." 

To T. CoxE. — " I am particularly to thank you for your favor 
in forwarding the Bee. Your letters give a comfortable view of 
French affairs, and later events seem to confirm it. Over the for- 
eign powers I am convinced they will triumph completely, and I 
cannot but hope that that triumph, and the consequent disgrace of 
the invading tyrants, is destined, in the order of events, to kindle 
the wrath of the people of Europe against those who have dared to 
embroil them in such wickedness, and to bring at length, kings, no 
bles, and priests to the scaffolds which they have been so long delug- 
ing with human blood. I am still warm whenever I think of 
these scoundrels, though T do it as seldom as I can, preferring infi 
nitely to contemplate the tranquil growth of my lucerne and pota- 
toes. I have so completely withdrawn myself from these specta- 
cles of usurpation and misrule, that I do not take a single newspa- 
per, nor read one a month : and I feel myself infinitely the happier 
for it. 

"We are alarmed here with the apprehensions of Avar ; and sincere- 
ly anxious that it may be avoided ; but not at the expense either of 
our faith or honor. It seems much the general opinion hoe, the latter, 
has been too much wounded not to require reparation, and to seek 
it even in war, if that be necessary. As to myself, I love peace. 
and I am anxious that we should give the world still another use- 

31 



Oo4 LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

ful lesson, by showing to them other modes of punishing injuries 
than by war, which is as much a punishment to the punisher as to 
the sufferer. I love, therefore, Mr. Clarke's proposition of cutting oft" 
all communication with the nation which has conducted itself so 
atrociously. This you will say may bring on war. If it does, we 
will meet it like men ; but it may not bring on war, and then the 
<:;xperiment will have been a happy one. I believe this war would 
be vastly more unanimously approved than any one wc ever were 
engaged in ; because the aggressions have been so wanton and 
bare-faced, and so unquestionably against our desire." 

To J. Madison. — " The denunciation of the democratic socie- 
ties is one of the extraordinary acts of boldness of which we have 
seen so many from the faction of monocrats. It is wonderful in- 
deed, that the President should have permitted himself to be the or- 
2,"an of such an attack on the freedom of discussion, the freedom of 
writing, printing, and publishing. It must be a matter of rare cu- 
riosity to get at the modifications of these rights proposed by them, 
and to see what line their ingenuity would draw between demo- 
cvatical societies, whose avowed object is the nourishment of the re- 
publican principles of our constitution, and the society of the Cin- 
■innati, a self-created one, carving out for itself hereditary distinc- 
tions, lowering over our constitution eternally, meeting together in 
all parts of the Union, periodically, with closed doors, accumulating 
a capital in their separate treasury, conesponding secretly and reg- 
ularly, and of which society the very persons denouncing the demo- 
crats are themselves the fathers, founders, and high officers. Their 
sight must be perfectly dazzled by the glittering of crowns and cor- 
onets, not to see the extravagance of the proposition to suppress the 
friends of general freedom, while those who v/ish to confine that 
freedom to the few, are permitted to go on in their principles and 
practices. I here put out of sight the persons whose misbehavior 
has been taken advantage of to slander the friends of popular rights ; 
and I am happy to observe, thai as far as the circle of my observa- 
tion and information extends, every body has lost sight of them, and 
views the abstract attempt on their natural and constitutional rights 
in all its nakedness. I have never heard, or heard of, a single ex- 
pression or opinion which did not condemn it as an inexcusable ag- 
gression. And with respect to the transactions against the excise 
law, it appears to me that you are all swept away in the torrent of 
governmental opinions, or that we do not know what these transac- 
f ions have been. We know of none which, according to the defin- 
itions of the law, have been any thing more than riotous. There 
was indeed a meeting to consult about a separation. But to consult 
on a question does not amount to a determination of that question in 
the affirmative, still less to the acting on such a determination : but 
i^e shall see. I suppose, what the court lawyers, and courtly judges, 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 355 

and woulcl-be ambassadors will make of it. The excise law is an 
infernal one. The first error was to admit it by the constitution : 
the second, to act on that admission : the third and last will be, to 
make it the instrument of dismembering the Union, and setting iis 
all afloat to choose what part of it we will adhere to. " * * 

" However, the time is coming when we shall fetch up the lee- 
way of our vessel. The changes in your House, I see, are going on 
for the better, and even the Augean herd over your heads are slowly 
puiging off tiiei)- impurities. Hold on then, my dear friend, that we 
may not shipwreck in the mean while. I do not see, in the minds 
of those with whom I converse, a greater affliction than the fear of 
your retirement ; but this must not be, unless to a more splendid 
arid a more etiicacious post. There I should rejoice to see you ; 1 
hope I may say, I shall rejoice to see you. I have long had much 
in my mind to say to you on that subject. But double delicacies 
have kept me silent. I ought perhaps to say, while 1 would not 
give up my own retirement for the empire of the universe, how I can 
justify wishing one whose happiness I have so much at heart as 
yours, to take the front of the battle which is fighting for my secur- 
ity. This would be easy enough to be done, but not at the heel of 
a lengthy epistle." 

To M. Page. — " I do not beheve with the Rochefoucaults and 
Montaignes, that fourteen out of fifteen men are rogues ; I believe 
a great abatement from that proportion may be made in favor of 
general honesty. But I have always found that rogues would be 
uppermost, and I do not know that tlie proportion is too strong for 
the higher orders, and for those who, rising above the swinish mul- 
titude, always contrive to nestle themselves into the places of power 
and profit. These rogues set out with stealing the peoples' good 
opinion, and then steal from them the right of- withdrawing it, by 
contriving laws and associations against the power of the people 
themselves. Our part of the country is in considerable fermentation 
on what they suspect to be a recent roguery of this kind. They 
say that while all hands were below deck mending sails, splicing 
ropes, and every one at his own business, and the captain in his cal)- 
in attending to his log book and chart, a rogue of a pilot has run 
them into an enemy's port. But metaphor apart, there is much dis- 
satisfaction with Mr. Jay and his treaty. For my part, I consider 
myself now but as a passenger, leaving the world and its govern- 
ment to those who are likely to live longer in it. That you may be 
among the longest of these, is my sincere prayer." 

To J. Madison. — " Hamilton is really a colossus to the anti- 
republican party. Without numbers, he is an host within himself. 
They have got themselves into a defile, where they might be finish- 
ed ; but too much security on the republican part will give time to 



356 LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

liis talents and indefatigableness to extricate them. We have had 
only middling performances to oppose to him. In truth when he 
comes forward, there is nobody but yourself who can meet him. His 
adversaries having begun the attack, he has the advantage of an 
swering them, and remains unanswered himself. A solid reply 
might yet completely demolish what was too feebly attacked, and 
has gathered strength from the weakness of the attack. The mer- 
chants were certainly (except those of them who are English) as 
open-mouthed at first against the treaty, as any. But the general 
expression of indignation has alarmed them for the strength of the 
government. They have feared the shock would be too great, and 
have chosen to tack about and support both treaty and government, 
rather than risk the government. Thus it is, that Hamilton, Jay, 
&c. in the boldest act they ever ventured on to undermine the gov- 
ernment, have the address to screen themselves, and direct the hue 
and cry against those who wished to drag them into light. A bold- 
er party-stroke was never struck. For it certainly is an attempt of 
a party, who find they have lost their majority in one branch of the 
legislature, to make a law by the aid of the other branch and of the 
executive, under color of a treaty, which shall bind up the hands of 
the adverse branch from ever restraining the commerce of their pat- 
ron nation. There appears a pause at present in the pubhc senti- 
ment, which may be followed by a revulsion. This is the efiiect of 
the desertion of the merchants, of the President's chiding answer to 
Boston and Richmond, of the vv'ritings of Curtius and Camillus, and 
of the quietism intowhicli people naturally fall after first sensations 
are over. For God's sake take up your pen, and give a fundamen- 
tal reply to Curtius and Camillus." 

To J. Monroe. — " The British treaty has been formally, at 
length, laid before Congress. All America is a tiptoe to see what 
the House of Representatives will decide on it. We conceive the 
constitutional doctrine to be, that though the President and Senate 
have the general power of making treaties, yet wherever they in- 
clude in a treaty matters confided by the constitution to the three 
branches of legislature, an act of legislation will be requisite to con- 
firm these articles, and that the House of Representatives, as one 
branch of the legislature, are perfectly free to pass the act or to re- 
fuse it, governing themselves by their own judgment whether it is 
for the good of their constituents to let the treaty go into efilect or not. 
On the precedent now to be set will depend the future construc- 
tion of our constitution, and whether the powers of legislation shall 
be transferred from the President, Senate, and House of Representa- 
tives, to the President and Senate, and Piamingo or any other In- 
dian, Algerine, or other chief. It is fortunate that the first decision is 
to be in a case so palpably atrocious, as to have been predetermined 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 357 

by all America. The appointment of Ellsworth Chief Justice, and 
Chase one of the judges, is doubtless communicated to you." 

To J. Monroe. — " The campaign of Congress has closed. 
Though the Anglomen have in the end got their treaty through, 
and so far have triumphed over the cause of republicanism, yet it 
has been to them a dear-bought victory. It has given the most rad- 
ical shock to their party which it has ever received : and there is no 
doul3t, they would be glad to be replaced on the ground they pos- 
sessed the instant before Jay's nomination extraordinary. They see 
that nothing can support them but the colossus of the President's 
merits with the people, and the moment he retires, that his successor, 
if a monocrat, will be overborne by the republican sense of his con- 
stituents ; if a republican, he will of course give fair play to that 
sense, and lead things into the channel of harmony between the 
governors and governed. In the mean time, patience." 

To J. Monroe. — -" Congress have risen. You will have seen 
by their proceedings the truth of what I always observed to you, 
that one man outweighs them all in influence over the people, who 
have supported his judgment against their own and that of their re- 
presentatives. Republicanism must lie on its oars, resign the vessel 
to its pilot, and themselves, to the course he thinks best for them. 
I had always conjectiaed, from such facts as I could get hold of, that 
our public debt was increasing about a million of dollars a year. 
You will see by Gallatin's speeches that the thing is proved. You 
will see farther, that we are completely saddled and bridled, and 
that the bank is so firmly mounted on us that we must go where 
they will guide." 

To P. Mazzei, (in Europe.) — " The aspect of our politics has 
wonderfully changed since you left us. In place of that noble love 
of liberty and repubUcan government which carried us triumphant- 
ly through the war, an Anghcan monachical and aristocratical par- 
ty has sprung up, whose avowed object is to draw over us the sub- 
stance, as they have already done the forms, of the British govern- 
ment. The main body of our citizens, however, remain true to 
their republican principles : the whole landed interest is republican, 
and so is a great mass of talents. Against us are the executive, the 
judiciary, two out of three branches of the legislature, all the officers 
of the government, all who want to be officers, all timid men who 
prefer the calm of despotism to the boisterous sea of liberty, British 
merchants and Americans trading on British capitals, speculators 
and holders in the banks and public funds, a contrivance invented 
for the purposes of corruption, and for assimilating us in all things to 
the rotten as well as the sound parts of the British model. It would 
give you a fever were I to name to you the apostates who have gone 
over to these heresies, men who were Samsons in the field and Solo- 

31* 



358 LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

inons in the council, but, who have had their heads shorn by the 
harlot England. In short, we are likely to preserve the liberty we 
have obtained only by unremitting labors and perils. But we shall 
preserve it ; and our mass of weight and wealth on the good side is 
so great, as to leave no danger that force will ever be attempted 
against us. We have only to awake and snap the Lilliputian cords 
with which they have been entanghng us during the first sleep 
which succeeded our labors. 

" I begin to feel the effects of age. My health has suddenly bro- 
ken down, with symptoms which give me to believe I shall not 
have much to encounter of the tedium vitoe. While it remains, 
however, my heart will be warm in its friendships, and among 
these, will always foster the affections with which I am, Dear Sir. 
your friend and servant." 

The last of the above letters is somewhat celebrated in the politi- 
cal history of the dark ages of our Republic. The circumstances 
which have given it notoriety, aside from its remarkable merits as an 
epistolary essay, are these. It was written to an Italian, an inti- 
mate and confidential friend of Mr. Jefferson, who had passed some 
years in the United States, in the vicinity of Monticello. It was a 
long letter of business, in w4iich was the single paragraph only of 
political matter, inserted above. This paragraph was extracted. 
published in a Florence paper, republished in the Moniteur of Paris, 
and an additional sentence interpolated, which made Mr. Jefferson 
charge his own country with ingratitude and injustice to the French 
nation. This was at a time when the dominant party in France 
were laboring under very general disfavor, and their friends were ea- 
ger to catch at every circumstance to buoy them up. The sentence 
respecting France was an entire fabrication. There was not a word 
m tiie Vv'hole letter relating to France, or any of the proceedings or 
relations between this country and that. In this interpolated form, 
it was copied into the newspapers of the United States, made a sub- 
ject of exaggerated commentary by the editors, and a never failing 
source of crimination and calumny against Mr. Jefferson and the re- 
publican party. In the genuine letter, of which the author retain- 
ed a press-copy, and of which the controverted paragraph is given en- 
lire, there was not one word which would not then have been, or 
would not now be approved by every republican in the United States, 
looking back to the times in which it was written. Instead of be 
ino" libeled, and made a theme of reprobation, itshoidd be written in 
sunbeams, in eternal honor of the author, and engraved upon the 



OP THOMAS JEFFERSON. 359 

heart of every American, in everlasting testimony against that peri- 
od, of which it presents so terrible yet faithful a portrait. 

A great handle was made of this letter to produce a rupture be- 
tween the writer and General Washington. Besides the interpolated 
sentence, and the mutilated hue which the translations through 
Italian and French into English, gave the whole paragraph, a mis- 
translation of a single word entirely perverted its meaning, and made 
it a pliant text of copious misrepresentations of the author. The 
w'ord ' forms' in the first sentence, was rendered form, so as to 
make Mr. Jefferson express hostiUty to the present frame or organi- 
zation of government. Whereas the ' forms' there meant, were 
the levees, birth-days, the pompous cavalcade to the capitol on the 
meeting of Congress, the formal speech from the throne, the pro- 
cession of Congress to re-echo the speech in an answer, &c. &c. 
Of all these, it is true, the writer of that letter was an avowed, an 
implacable enemy, and intended, on that occasion, to express his 
unquahfied reprehension. Now General Washington perfectly un- 
derstood what was meant by these forms, as tliey had been frequent 
subjects of conversation between him and Mr. Jefferson. On these 
occasions he always joined in condemning them, explained the cir- 
cumstances by w^iich the aristocrats had inveigled him into them, 
and afterwards took measures to prevent their repetition. When 
the term of his second election arrived, he called the heads of de- 
partments together, observed that a proper occasion was now offered, 
of revising the ceremonies established, and desired them, by con- 
sulting together, to agree on such changes as they should think pro- 
per. Hamilton concurred with Mr. Jefferson at once, that there was 
too much ceremony for the character of our government, and par- 
ticularly, that the parade of the installation at New- York ought not 
to be copied ; that the President should desire the Chief Justice to at- 
tend him at his chambers, and administer the oath of office to him 
in the presence of the higher officers of the government. Randolph 
and Knox differed from them ; the latter vehemently. As the 
opinions of the Cabinet were divided, and no positive decision given, 
no change was made. 

The phrase ' Samsons in the field,' it was always said, was intended 
to include Gen. Washington under the general charge of apostacy. 
But himself never so understood it. He knew" that it was meant for 
the officers of the Cincinnati generally, and that, from what had 



360 LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

passed between him and Mr. Jefferson at the commencement of the 
institution, it was not intended to include him. So far from his 
having called the author to an account, as has been gravely pub- 
lished, for these expressions in the letter to Mazzei, there never pas 
sed a word, written oi verbal, directly or indirectly, between them on 
the subject ; and their last parting, which was at the inauguration 
of Mr. Adams in '97, was warmly affectionate. General Washington 
never would have incurred such a degradation as to have appropria- 
,ted to himself the imputation in that letter on the ' Samsons in 
combat.'* 

Unwearied stratagems were used to alienate the President from 
his late Secretary of State. The latter was represented as indus- 
triously engaged in promoting the opposition to the government. 
But if there was any one thing for which he was remarkable, it was 
his singular forbearance in this respect. It is an extraordinary fact 
in Mr. Jefferson's Ufe, that he never wrote a paragraph for the news- 
papers. The only channel of communication which he employed, 
for making known his sentiments abroad, was that of private corres- 
pondence ; and he always restrained it to those on whose fidelity he 
could sacredly rely against a public divulgation. It would be diffi- 
cult to assign a motive for his singular caution on this head, unless 
it were an immeasurable desire for tranquillity. Every public in- 
ducement would certainly have constrained him to a different course; 
for he had declared, that ' were it left to himself to decide, whether 
we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers 
without a government, he should not hesitate a moment to prefer 
the latter.' Much as he idolized the freedom of the press, as the on- 
ly safeguard of the public liberty, and preservative against human 
error, he never appropriated to his own use any portion of its effica- 
cy ; not even for the puiposes of self defence, against the unparal- 
leled torrent of obloquy with which he was assailed for thirty years. 
This curious fact, which would not have been credited by the past 
generation, appears in many of his letters, and particularly in one to 
General Washington, written at this period. 

« I have formerly mentioned to you, that from a very early period 
of my life, I had laid it down as a rule of conduct never to write a 
word for the public papers. From this, I have never departed in a 



* Letter to Martin Van Buren, 1824. 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 



361 



single instance ; and on a late occasion, [the British treaty,] when 
all the world seemed to be writing, besides a rigid adherence to my 
own rule, I can say with truth, that not a line for the press was ever 
communicated to me, by any other, except a single petition referred 
for my correction ; which I did not correct, however, though the 
contrary, as I have heard, was said in a public place, by one person 
through error, through malice by another. I learn that this last has 
thought it worth his while to try to sow tares between you and me, 
by representing me as still engaged m the bustle of politics, and in 
turbulence and intrigue against the government. I never believed 
for a moment that this could make any impression on you, or that 
your knowledge of me would not overwf^igh the slander of an in- 
triguer, dirtily employed in sifting the (Muversations of my table, 
where alone he could hear of me ; and seeking to atone for his sins 
against you by sins against another, who had never done him any 
other injury than that of declining his confidences. Political con- 
versations I really dislike, and therefore avoid where I can without 
affectation. But when urged by others, I have never conceived 
that having been in public life requires me to belie my sentiments, 
or even to conceal them. When I am led by conversation to ex- 
press them. I do it with the same independence here, which I have 
practised every where, and which is inseparable from my nature."' 

Early in the year 1795, the two great parties of the nation became 
firmly arrayed against each other, on the question of providing 
a successor to General Washington. The withdrawal from the 
scene of competition, of the only man in the United States who 
united the choice of all parties, created the first occasion of a dispu- 
ted election to the Presidency. Mr. Adams was taken up by the 
monarchical federalists, and by the aristocratical party generally, 
who, by the patronage of the government, by the duperies which 
they practised, and the 'terrorism with which they surrounded them- 
-selves,' drove all the moderate federalists, and many honest repub- 
licans into their ranks. Mr. JefTerson was undividedly designated 
as the republican candidate. His name was brought forward with- 
out concert or approbation on his part, and, indeed, in opposition to 
his express wishes. In answer to a letter from Mr. Madison, on 
the subject, in April, '95, he communicated his dispositions frankly 
and decidedly. After expressing the first wish of his heart, which 
was to see his correspondent himself at the head of the government, 
as the fittest person in the United States for that office, he says : 

"For as to myself, the subject had been thoroughly weighed and 
decided on, and my retirement from office had been meant from all 
office, high or low, without exception. I can say, too, with truth. 



362 



LIFE, "WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 



that the subject had not been presented to my mind by any vanity 
of my own. I know myself and my fellow citizens too well to 
have ever thought of it. But the idea was forced upon me by con- 
tinual insinuations in the public papers, while I was in office. As 
all these came from a hostile quarter, I knew that their object was 
to poison the public mind as to my motives, when they were not 
able to charge me with facts. But the idea being once presented 
to me, my own quiet required that I should face it and examine it. 
I did so thoroughly, and had no difficulty to see that every reason 
which had determined me to retire from the office I then held, op- 
erated more strongly against that which was insinuated to be my 
object. I decided then on those general grounds which could alone 
be present to my mind at that time, that is to say, reputation, tran- 
quilUty, labor ; for as to public duty, it could not be a topic of con- 
sideration in my case. If these general considerations were suffi- 
cient to ground a firm resolution never to permit myself to think of 
the office, or be thought of for it, the special ones, wliich have su- 
pervened on my retirement, still more insuperably bar the door to 
it. My health is entirely broken down within the last eight months ; 
my age requires that 1 should place my affiiirs in a clear state ; 
these are sound if taken care of, luit capable of considerable dangers 
if longer neglected ; and above all things, the delights I feel in the 
society of my family, and in the agricultural pursuits in which I am 
so eagerly engaged. The little spice of ambition which I had in 
my 3^ounger days, has long since evaporated, and I set still less store 
by a posthumous than present name. In stating to you the heads 
of reasons which, have produced my determination, I do not mean 
an opening for future discussion, or that 1 may be reasoned oxit. of 
it. The ([uestion is for ever closed with me ; my sole object is to 
avail myself of tl^e first ojiening ever given me from a friendly quar- 
ter (and I could fnot with decency do it before) of preventing any 
division or loss of votes, which might be fatal to the republican in- 
terest." 

There can be no doubt that these were the I'eal sentiments of Mr. 
Jefferson. Writing to a bosom friend, with whom he was in habits 
of unlimited trust and counsel, lie could have no possible motive to 
dissemble, but every rational one to avoid it. They were too anal- 
ogous, also, to the whole tenor of his previous declarations, and to 
all his attachments to philosophy, agriculture and domestic retire- 
ment, not to preclude every suspicion of their sincerity. 

The contest was conducted with great asperity. In fierceness 
and turbulence of character, in the temper and dispositions of the 
respective parties, and in the principles which were put in issue, the 
contest so strongly resembled those, of which the present generation 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 363 

have been frequent eye-witnesses and actors, as to render a descrip- 
tion unnecessary. The issue is well known. The struggle of 
the people against the party in power, and who have abused 
that power to the strengthening of their own hands, is always an 
unequal one ; and was lost, on the present occasion, by the trans- 
cendent popularity of the existing incumbent, which was dexterous- 
ly made a stalking horse by the ' monocrats' for carrying their can- 
ditlate into the succession. The majority, however, was too incon- 
siderable to make it a triumph. On counting the electoral votes in 
February, 1797, it appeared there were seventy-one for Mr. Adams, 
and sixty-eight for Mr. Jefferson. But the difference was still less 
between the real vote, which was 70 to 69 ; for one of the Pennsyl- 
vania* electors was excluded, in consequence of some informality, 
and one who was not an elector, was admitted. Had the same rig- 
or of construction been observed, in other cases of irregularity, the 
result of the election, in all probability, would have been reversed. 
The validity of the Vermont election was a subject of long and rea- 
sonable doubt, on the ground of informahty. But Mr. Jefferson 
would not permit his friends to raise a question on it before the 
House. In aletter to Mr. Madison, dated January 16, 1797, about a 
month before the electoral votes were counted, he wrote : " I observe 
doubts are still expressed as to the validity of the Vermont election. 
Surely, in so great a case, substance, and not form, should prevail. 
I cannot suppose that the Vermont constitution has been strict in 
requiring particular forms of expressing the legislative will. As far 
as my disclaimer may have any effect, I pray you to declare it on 
every occasion, foreseen or not foreseen by me, in favor of the choice 
of the people substantially expressed, and to prevent the phenome- 
non of a pseudo-President at so early a day." 

A similar instance of magnanimity towards his competitor, was 
manifested by Mr. Jefferson on another occasion during the elec- 
tion. At one time, it was pretty generally conjectured, that the vote 
would be equally divided between the opposing candidates ; in 
which event the election would have devolved on the House of Rep- 
resentatives, which was likewise believed to be about equally divided. 



* The States of Pennsylvania, North-Carolina, South-Carolina, Georgia, 
Kentucky and Tennessee, voted for Mr. Jefferson. The New-England States, 
with N. York, N. Jersey and Delaware, voted for Mr. Adams. Maryland gaye 
scxen votes for Mr. Adams, and four for Mr. Jefferson. 



364 LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

Foreseeing the possibility of such a dilemma, he wrote to Mr. Mad- 
ison, under dateof December 17, 1796, authorizing and requesting 
him, in that event, to manifest his disclaimer in favor of Mr. Adams. 

" The first wish of my heart was, that yoa should have been 
proposed for the administration of the government. On your de- 
clining it, I wish any body rather than myself: and there is noth- 
ing I so anxiously hope, as that my name may come out either sec- 
ond or third. These would be indifferent to me ; as the last would 
leave me at home the whole year, and the other, two-thirds of it. 
I have no expectation that the Eastern States will suffer themselves 
to be so much outwitted, as to be made the tools for bringing in P. 
instead of A. I presume they will throw away their second vote. 
In this case, it begins to appear possible, that there may be an equal 
division where I had supposed the republican vote would have been 
considerably minor. It seems also possible, that the Representatives 
may be divided. This is a diffculty from which the constitution 
has provided no issue. It is both my duty and inclination, there- 
fore, to reUeve the embarrassment, should it happen : and in that 
case, I pray you, and authorize you fully, to solicit on my behalf that 
Mr. Adams may be preferred He has always been my senior, 
from the commencement of our public life, and the expression of the 
public will being equal, this circumstance ought to give him the 
preference. And when so many motives will be operating to induce 
some of the members to change their vote, the addition of my wish 
may have some effect to preponderate the scale." 

So soon as the event of the election became known, Mr. Jeffer- 
son made every exertion to re-establish harmony between himself 
and Mr. Adams. They had been cordial friends from the begin- 
ning of the Revolution until their return from Europe. After their 
reunion on this side the Atlantic, various little circumstances occur- 
red, which produced a coldness and partial estrangement on the 
part of Mr. Adams. But none of these things, it appears, had af- 
fected the mind of Mr. Jellerson. The deviation of his revolution- 
ary co-worker from that line of politics, on which they had been 
united, had not made him less sensible of the rectitude of his heart, 
He wished him, most devoutly, to know this, as well as another 
truth, that he was sincerely gratified at having escaped the 'late 
draught for the helm,' and had not a wish to which his friend pre- 
sented an obstacle. That he should be convinced of these truths 
was important to their mutual satisfaction, and perhaps to the har- 
mony and good conduct of the public service. Accordingly, he ad- 
dressed a letter to Mr. Madison, in which he enclosed another to Mr, 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 365 

Adams, stating the undiminished cordiahty of his attachment, iu 
the most affecting terms ; and concluding with the sincere prayer 
that his administration might be filled with glory and happiness to 
himself, and advantage to the nation. 

The following selections from his correspondence at this period, 
display a character, to which the world has hitherto attached little 
credit, in the estimates which it has put upon this extraordinary per- 
sonage. 

To J. Madison. — "It is difficult to obtain fidl credit to declara- 
tions of disinclination to honors, and most so with those who still 
remain in the world. But never was there a more solid unwilling- 
ness, founded on rigorous calculation, formed in the mind of any 
man, short of peremptory refusal. No arguments, therefore, were 
necessary to reconcile me to a relinquishment of the first office, or 
acceptance of the second. No motive could have induced me to 
undertake the first, but that of putting our vessel upon her republi- 
can tack, and preventing her being driven too far to leeward of her 
true principles. And the second is the only office in the world about 
which I cannot decide in my own mind, whether I had rather have 
it or not have it. Pride does not enter into the estimate. For I 
think with the Romans of old, that the General of to-day should be 
a common soldier to-morrow, if necessary. But as to Mr. Adams, 
particularly, I could have no feelings which would revolt at being 
placed in a secondary station to him. I am his junior in life, I was 
his junior in Congress, his junior in the diplomatic line, and lately 
his junior in our civil government. I had AvritteJi him the enclosed 
letter before the receipt of yours. I had intended it for some time, 
but had put it off, from time to time,, from the discouragement of 
despair to make him believe me sincere. As the information by 
the last post does not make it necessary to change any thing in the 
letter, I enclose it open for your perusal, as well that you may be 
possessed of the true state of dispositions between us, as that if there 
be any circumstance which might render its delivery ineligible, you 
may return it to me. If Mr. Adams could be induced to administer 
the' government on its true principles, quitting his bias for an Eng- 
lish constitution, it would be worthy consideration whether it would 
not be for the public good, to come to a good understanding with 
him as to his future elections. He is the only sure Ijarrier against 
Hamilton's getting in." 

To E. RuTLEDGE. — " You havc seen my name lately tacked to 
so much of eulogy and of abuse, that I dare say you hardly thought 
it meant your old acquaintance of '76. In truth, I did not know my- 
self under the pens either of my friends or foes. It is unfortunate 
for our peace, that unmerited abuse wounds, while unmerited prai.se 

32 



366 LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

has not the power to heal. These are hard wao^es for the services of 
all the active and healthy years of one's life. 1 had retired after live 
and twenty years of constant occupation in public affairs, and total 
abandonment of my own. I retired much poorer than when I en- 
tered the public service, and desired nothing but rest and oblivion. 
My name, however, was again brought forward, without concert or 
(jxpectation on my part ; (on my salvation I declare it.) I do not 
as yet know the result, as a matter of fact ; for in my retired canton 
we have nothing later from Philadelphia than of the second week 
(jf this month. Yet I have never one moment doubted the result. 
1 knew it was impossible Mr. Adams should lose a vote north of the 
Delaware, and that the free and moral agency of the south w^ould 
fiu'nish him an abundant supplement. On principles of public re- 
spect I should not have refused ; but I protest before my God, that 
i shall, from the bottom of my heart, rejoice at escaping. I know 
well that no man will ever bring out of that office the reputation 
which carries him into it. The honey- moon would be as short in 
that case as in any other, and its moments of ecstacy would be ran- 
somed by years of torment and hatred. I shall highly value, in- 
deed, the share which I may have had in the late vote, as an evi- 
dence of the share I hold in the esteem of my countrymen. But 
in this point of view, a few votes more or less, will be little sensible, 
and in every other, the minor will be preferred by me to the major 
vote. I have no ambition to govern men ; no passion which would 
lead me to delight to ride in a storm. Fhrniina amo^ syhmsque, 
inglorious. My attachment to my home has enabled me to make 
the calculation with vigor, perhaps with partiality, to the issue which 
keeps me there. The newspapers will permit me to plant my corn, 
pease, &c. in hills or drills as I please, (and my oranges, by the bye 
when you send them,) while our eastern friend will be struggling 
with the storm which is gathering over us; perhaps be shipwreck- 
<;d in it. This is certainly not a moment to covet the helm." 

To J. Sullivan. — " The idea that I would accept the office of 
President, but not that of Vice-President of the United States, had 
not its origin with me. I never thought of questioning the free ex- 
ercise of the right of my fellow citizens, to marshal those whom they 
call into their service according to their fitness, nor ever presumed 
that they were not the best judges of that. Had I indulged a wish 
in what manner they should dispose of me, it would precisely have 
coincided with wdiat they have done. Neither the splendor, nor the 
[lower, nor the difficulties, nor the fame, or defamation, as may hap- 
jjen, attached to the first magistracy, have any attractions for me. 
The helm of a free government is ahvays arduous, and never was 
ours more so, than at a moment v;hen two friend!}^ people are like 
to be eommitted in war by the ill temper of their administrations. I 
am so much attached to my domestic situatioii, that I would not have 

y 



OF THOMAS JEFPERSOK. 



3G7 



wished to leave it at all. However, if I am to be called from it, the 
shortest absences and most tranquil station suit me best. I value 
liighl}', indeed, the part iny fellov.^ citizens gave me in their late 
vote, as an evidence of their esteem, and I am happy in the informa- 
tion you are so kind as to give, that many in the eastern quarter 
entertain the same sentiment. 

"Where a constitution, like ours, wears a mixed aspect of mon- 
archy and republicanism, its citizens will naturally divide into two 
classes of sentiment, according as their tone of body or mind, their 
habits, connections, and callings, induce them to wish to strengthen 
either the monarchical or the republican features of the constitution. 
Some will consider it as an elective monarchy, which had better be 
made hereditary, and therefore endeavor to lead towards that all the 
forms and principles of its administration. Others will view it as an 
energetic republic, turning in all its points on the pivot of free and 
frequent elections. The great body of our native citizens are un- 
questionably of the republican sentiment. Foreign education, and 
foreign connections of interest, have produced some exceptions in 
every part of the Union, north and south ; and perhaps other cir- 
cumstances in your quarter, better known to you, may have thrown 
into the scale of exceptions a greater number of the rich. Still 
there. I believe, and here, I am sure, the great mass is repul)lican. 
Nor do any of the forms in which the public disposition has been 
pronounced in the last half dozen years, evince the contrary. All 
of them, wdien traced to their true source, have only been evidences 
of the preponderant popularity of a particular great character. That 
influence once withdrawn, andoiu" countr3aiien left tp the operation 
of their own unbiased good sense, I have no doubt we shall see a 
pretty rapid return of general harmony, and our citizens moving in 
phalanx in the paths of regular liberty, order, and a sacrosanct ad- 
herence to the constitution. Thus I think it will be, if war with 
France can be avoided. But if that untoward event comes athwart 
us in our present point of deviation, no body, I believe, can foresee 
into what port it will drive us." 



36S LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 



CHAPTER XII. 

Tlic new administration, under John Adams, commenced on the 
1th of March, 1797. In the composition of his cabinet, the Presi- 
dent was swayed by the Hamiltonian counsellors who surrounded 
him, and who had made him all their own. The selection of char- 
acters was of course purely anti-republican, at the head of whom 
was Timothy Pickering ; and the measures of the whole adminis- 
tration partook thoroughly of the same political hue. 

Mr. Jefferson arrived at the seat of government on the 2d of 
March. Though there was no necessity for his attendance, he had 
detevmiued to come on, from a principle of respect to the public, and 
the nev/ President, He had talceu the precaution, however, to 
manifest his disapprobation of the mimicry of royal forms and cere- 
monies, which was established at the first inauguration, by declinincr 
all participation in the homage of the occasion. Soon as he was 
certified by the public papers, of the event of the election, he address- 
ed a letter to Mr. Tazewell, Senator of Yirginia, expressing his par- 
ticular desire to dispense with the useless formality of notification by 
a special messenger. At the first election of President and Vice 
President, gentlemen of considerable distinction were deputed to no- 
tify the parties chosen ; and it was made an oflfice of much dignity. 
But this expensive'^formality was as unnecessary as it was repug- 
nant to the genius of oiu' government ; and he was anxious that 
the precedent should not be drawn into example. He therefore au- 
thorized Mr. Tazewell to request the Senate, if not incompatible 
with their views of propriety, to discontinue the practice in relation 
to himself, and to adopt the channel of the post, as the least trouble- 
some, the most rapid, and, by the use of duplicates and triplicates, 
always capable of being rendered the most certain. He addressed 
another letter, at the same time, to Mr. Madison, requesting him to 
discountenance in his behalf, all parade of reception, induction, 
&c. ' I hope, said he, I shall be made a part of no ceremony what- 
ever. I shall escape into the city as covertl}' as possible. If Gov- 
ernor Mifflin should show any symptoms of ceremony, pray contrive 
to parry them.' 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 369 

. There was another point, involving an important constitutional 
principle, on which Mr. Jefferson improved the occasion of his elec- 
tion to introduce a salutary reformation in the practice of the gov- 
ernment. During the previous administration, the Vice President 
was made a member of the cabinet, and occasionally participated in 
the executive consultations, equally with the members of the cabi- 
net proper. But this practice he regarded as an unwarrantable 
combination of legislative with executive powers, which the consti- 
tution had wisely separated. He availed himself, therefore, of the 
first opening from a friendly quarter, to announce his determination 
to consider the office of Vice-President as legitimately confined to 
legislative functions, and to sustain no part whatever in the execu- 
tive consultations. In a letter to Mr. Madison, dated Monticello, 
January 22, 1797, he says : "My letters inform me that Mr. Ad- 
ams speaks of me with great friendship, and with satisfaction in the 
prospect of administering the government in concurrence with me. 
I am glad of the first information, because, though I saw that our 
ancient friendship was affected by a litde leaven, produced partly by 
his constitution, partly by the contrivance of others, yet 1 never felt 
a dimunition of confidence in his integrity, and retained a solid af- 
fection for him. His principles of government I knew to be chang- 
ed, but conscientiously changed. As to my participation in the ad- 
ministration, if by that he meant the executive cabinet, both duty 
and inclination will shut that door to me. I cannot have a wish to 
see the scenes of 1793 revived as to myself, and to descend dailv 
into the arena, hke a gladiator, to suffer martyrdom in every con- 
flict. As to duty, the constitution will know me only as the mem- 
ber of a legislative body ; and its principle is, that of a separation of 
legislative, executive, and judiciary functions, except in cases speci- 
fied. If this principle be not expressed in direct terms, yet it is 
clearly the spirit of the constitution, and it ought to be so comment- 
ed and acted on by every friend to free government." 

In the first moments of the enthusiasm of the inauguration. Mr. 
Adams forgot party sentiments, and indicated a disposition to har- 
monize with the republican body of his fellow citizens. He called 
on Mr. Jefferson the 3d of March, and expressed great pleasure at 
finding him alone, as he wished a free conversation with him. He 
entered immediately on an explanation of the situation of our af- 
fairs with France, and the danger of a rupture with that nation ; 

32* 



370 LIFE, WRITINGS. AND OPINIONS 

lliat he was impressed with the necessit}^ of an immediate mission 
to the Directory ; that it would have been the first wish of his heart 
to have got Mr. Jefterson to go there, but that he supposed it was 
now out of the question. Tiiat he had determined on sending an 
embassy, which, by its dignity, should satisfy France, and, by its 
selection from the three great divisions of the continent, should satis- 
fy all parts of the United States ; in short, that he determined to 
join Gerry and Madison to Pinckney, and he wished Mr. Jefferson 
to consult Madison in his behalf. He did so, but Mr. Madison de- 
clined, as was expected. Two days afterwards, on being informed 
by Mr. JelTerson of the result of his negotiation, Mr. Adams observ- 
ed, that on consultation with his caliinet, some objections to that 
nomination had been raised, which he had not contemplated ; and 
was going on with excuses which evidently embarrassed him, when 
they were suddenly interrupted. After that, he never said a word 
to Mr. Jefferson on the subject, or ever consulted him as to any 
measures of the administration. On the tirst meeting with his cab- 
met, it appears, he had fallen completely into the hands of the mon- 
archical party, and never afterwards recovered himself from their 
thraldom.* 

It is not our province to write the history of an administration. 
which is emphatically denominated the ' reign of terror.' The 
scorching and overwhelming portraiture recorded by Mr. Jeffer- 
son, and bequeathed by liim to his country, is sufficient to convey a 
general idea of that reckless and overbearing oligarchy, and of that 
mflexible opposition to it, by those firm spirits to whom the world is 
indebted for the preservation of repubhcanisra ' at its last gasp.' 

" Their usurpations and violations of the constitution at that pe- 
riod, and their majority in both Houses of Congress, were so great, 
so decided, and so daring, that after combating their aggressions, 
inch by inch, without being able in the least to check their career, 
the republican leaders thought it would be best for them to give up 
their useless efforts there, go home, get into their respective legisla- 
tures, embody whatever of resistance they could be formed into, and 
if ineffectual, to perish there as in the last ditch. All, therefore, re- 
tired, leaving Mr. Gallatin alone in the House of Representatives, 
and myself in the Senate, where I then presided as Vice-President. 
Remaining at our posts, and bidding defiance to the brow-beatings 



*Ana. 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 371 

and insults by which they endeavored to drive us olF also, we kept 
the mass of republicans in phalanx together, until the legislatures 
could be brought up to the charge ; and nothing on earth is more 
certain, than that if myself particularly, placed by my office of Vice 
President at the head of the republicans, had given way and Vtdth- 
drawn from my post, the repubhcans throughout the Union would 
have given up in despair, and the cause would have been lost for 
ever. By holding on, we obtained time for the legislatures to come 
up with their weight ; and those of Virginia and Kentucky partic- 
ularly, but more especially the former, by tlieir celebrated resolutions, 
saved the constitution at its last gasp. No person who was not a 
Avitness of the scenes of that gloomy period, can form any idea of the 
afflicting persecutions and personal indignities we had to brook. 
They saved our countr}?^ however. The spirits of the people were 
so much subdued and reduced to despair by the X. Y. Z. impos- 
ture, and other stratagems and machinations, that theywould have 
sunk into apathy and monarchy, as the only form of government 
which could maintain itself." 

'•' Mr. Adams, I am sure, has been long since convinced of the 
treacheries with which he was surrounded dining his administra- 
tion. He has since thoroughly seen, that his constituents were 
devoted to republican government, and whether his judgment is re- v rt. 
settled on its ancient basis, or not, he is conformed as a good citizen'^ ■' 
to the will of the majority, and would now, I am persuaded, main- ^^'Kve 
tain its republican structure with the zeal and fidehty belonging to ,' 
his character. For even an enemy has said, 'He is always an ?"*-*- ^'^'^' 
honest man, and often a great one.' But in the fenor of the fury '^ f,Utr^ 
and follies of those who made him their stalking-horse, no man who '^ 

did not witness it can form an idea of their unbridled madness, , and 
the terrorism with which they surrounded themselves. The hor- 
rors of the French revolution, then raging, aided them mainly, and 
using that as a raw-head and bloody-bones, they were enabled by 
their stratagems of X. Y. Z. in which ******** was a leading moun- 
tebank, their tales of tub-plots, ocean-massacres, bloody -buoys, and 
pulpit lyings and slanderings, and maniacal ravings of their Gardi- 
ners, their Osgoods, and Parishes, to spread alarm into all but the 
firmest breasts. Their Attorney General had the impudence to say 
to a republican member, that deportation must be resorted to, of 
which, said he, ' you republicans have set the example ;' thus dar- 
ing to identify us with the murderous Jacobins of France. These 
transactions, now recollected but as dreams of the night, were then 
sad realities ; and nothing rescued us from their liberticide effect, 
but the unyielding opposition of those firm spirits who sternly main 
tained their post in defiance of terror, until their fellow-citizens could 
be aroused to their own danger, and rally and rescue the standard 
of the constitution. This has been happily done. Federalism and 




372 LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

monarchisrn have languished from that, moment, until tlieii- trea- 
sonable combinations with the enemies of their country during the 
late war, their plots of dismembering the Union, and their Hartford 
Convention, have consigned them to the tomb of the dead : and I 
fondly hope, ' we may now truly say, "We are all republicans, all 
federalists,' and that the motto of the standard to which our coun- 
try will for ever rally, will be, ' Federal union, and republican gov- 
ernment :' and sure I am we may say, that we are indebted for 

. jLhe preservation of this point of ralliance, to that opposition of which 

so injurious anideais so artfully insinuated and excited in this history." 

The most obnoxious features which characterized the adminis- 
tration of Mr. Adams, were : 1st. The total abandomnent of the 
neutral and pacific policy towards foreign nations established by Mr. 
Jefferson, l)y courting a war with France, and an alliance offensive 
and defensive with Great Britain. 2d. As supplemental to the 
main design, the erection of a standing army, the enlargement of 
the navy, and war preparations of every kind, even after it was 
known from our envoys, that France was determined on maintain- 
ing peace with the United States, in spite of the ill temper of admin- 
istration. 3d. The enormous increase of the public debt, with loans 
on an usurious interest of 8 per cent, a necessary consequence of the 
useless war preparations. 4th. Direct taxation, in the form of stamp 
tax, land tax, &c. the legitimate consequence of excessive expendi- 
tures and an increase of debt. 5th. The Alien Law, designed to 
check emigration, and aimed particularly at certain distinguished 
characters of France, who had chosen an asylum in the United 
States. 6th. The Sedition Law, aimed at the freedom of the press, 
and of public discussion. The two last measures were considered as 
"deliberate, palpable and dangerous" violations of the constitution, 
and so acted upon by all the republican States, and by the succeeding 
general administration, in every case. 7th. The enlargement of 
Jj.,'* the federal judiciary by the creation of ^'^fJ,Y-'^,S..i "'^w judges; and 
" the assumption of the doctrine, that the common law of England was 
t i- the law of the United States, and that the federal courts possessed 

jurisdiction co-extensive with that law, to wit, overall cases and 
persons. This judiciary arrogation was considered by Mr. Jeffer- 
son as the highest usurpation of federal authority over the sovereign- 
ty of the States, and the most daring experiment upon the liberties 
of the people ever attempted by the general government. To these 
specific usurpations and avowed principles might be added the grad- 



OF THOMAS JEFFRSOX. 373 

luil and constant accvuiiulation of power in the general government, 
at the expense of the States, and in the executive, at the expense 
of the legislative power, by the general tendency of the administra- 
tive acts, and by investing the President with extraordinary discre- 
tionary powers. Another question, on which the parties of that 
day were strongly divided, andwhicli indeed was the foundation of 
every other, was on the improvability of the human mind, in science. 
in ethics, in gov^ernment, religion, &c. The republicans advocated 
reformation of institutions, pari passu with the progress of science, 
and maintained that no definite limits could be assigned to that pro- 
gress. The federalists, on the otlier hand, were the declared ene- 
mies of progressive reformation. They denied improvement in sci- 
ence, government, religion, &c. and advocated steady adherence to 
the principles, practices, and institutions of our fathers, which they 
represented as the consummation of wisdom, and acme of excel- 
lence, beyond which the human mind could never advance. 

Against this degenerate and high handed career of administra- 
tion, which was rapidly impelling the government into a monarchy, 
the opposition of the people was loud and uncompromising. The 
disciples of liberty and republican government adhered to Mr. Jef- 
ferson with undiminished enthusiasm, not only as the great found- 
er of the principles of republicanism, but as presenting, by his ex- 
traordinary talents, firmness, and superior station, the only hope of 
salvation through the awful crisis \\hich threatened destruction to 
every thing. The republican leaders in every part of the Union, 
leaned upon him as the Hercides of their political strength, and the 
Nestor of their pohiical wisdom. His private correspondence with 
them, through this gloomy period of our history, is of the most inter 
esting and powerful character. It forms, indeed, an important fea- 
ture in the secret annals of our government, and an inexliaustiblc 
resource of materials against the character of those times, of which 
so plausible an idea has l3een artfully transmitted to posterity. A 
pretty copious selection from his cabinet, in a connected series, 
through the years '97, '98 and '99, seems necessary to place the 
public history, and his own individual character and transactions, 
in an unvarnished point of hght. 

To General Gates. — " I wish any events could induce us to 
cease to copy such a model, [the British Government,] and to as- 
sume the dignity of being original. They had their paper system, 



374 



LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 



stockjobbing-. s|iecu]alions, public debt, inoiiied interest, &c., and all 
this was contrived for us. They raised their cry against jacobinism 
and revolutionists, we against donoci-atic societies and auti-federal- 
ists ; their alarmists sounded insurrection, ours marched an army 
to look for one, but they could not find it. I wish the parallel may 
stop here, and that wc may avoid, instead of imitating, a general 
bankruptcy and disastrous war. 

" Congress, or rather the Representatives, have been a fortnight 
debating between a more or less irritating answer to the President's 
speech. The latter Avas lost yesterday, jjy forty-eight against fifty- 
one or fifty-two. It is believed, however, that when they come to 
propose measures leading directly to war, they will lose some of 
their numbers. Those who have no wish but for the peace of their 
country, and its independence of all foreign influence, have a hard 
struggle indeed; overwhelmed by a cry as loud and imposmg as if 
it were true, of being under French influence, and this raised Ijy a 
faction composed of English subjects residing among us, or such as 
are English in all their relations and sentiment^. However, pa- 
tience will bring all to rights, and wc shall ])oth live to see tlie mask 
taken from their faces, and our citizens sensible on which side true 
liberty and independence are sought." 

To Goi.oNEL Burr. — -'I had always hoped, tliat the populariiy 
of the late President being once withdrawn from active eflect, the 
iiatural feelings of the people towards liberty would restore the equi- 
librunn betVt'een the executive and legislative departments, which 
had been destroyed by the superior weight and eflfect of that popu- 
larit}' ; and that their natural feehngs of moral obligation would 
discountenance the ungrateful predilection of the executive in favor 
of Great Britain. But unfortunately, the preceding measures [in 
relation to France] had already alienated the nation who w^ere the 
object of them, had excited reaction from them, and this reaction 
has on the minds of our citizens an effect which supplies that of the 
Washington popularity. This eflect was sensible on some of the 
late congressional elections, and this it is which has lessened the 
republican majority in Congress. . When it will be reinforced, must 
depend on events, and these are so incalculable, that I consider the 
future character of our republic as in the air ; indeed its f utm-e for- 
tune will be in the air, if war is made on us by France, and if Lou- 
isiana becomes a Gallo-American colony. 

" I have been much pleased to see a dawn of change in the spirit 
of your State. The late elections liave indicated something, 
which, at a distance, we do not understand. However, what with 
the English influence in the lower, and tlie Patroon influence in 
the upper parts of your State, I presume little is to be hoped. If a 
prospect could be once opened upon us of the penetration of truth 
into the eastern States : if the people there, who are unquestiona- 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 3l O 

bly republicans, could discover that they have been duped into the 
support of measures calculated to sap the very foundations of repub- 
licanism, we mig^ht still hope for salvation, and that it would come, 
as of old, from the East. But will that region ever awake to the 
true state of things ? Can the middle, southern, and western States 
hold on till they awake ? These arc painful and doubtful questions : 
and if, in assuring me of your health, you can give me a comfortable 
solution of them, it v/ill relieve a mind devoted to the preservation 
of our repubUcan government in the true form and spirit in which it 
was estabUshed, but almost oppressed with apprehensions that fraud 
will at length efiect what force could not, and that what with cur- 
rents and counter-currents, we shall in the end, be driven back to 
the land from which we launched twenty years ago. Indeed, my 
dear Sir, we have been but a sturdy fish on the hook of a dexterous 
angler, who letting us flounce till we have spent our force, brings us 
lip at last." 

To E. Gerry. — " It was with infinite joy to me, that you were 
yesterday announced to the Senate, as Envoy Extraordinary, joint- 
ly with General Pinckney and Mr. Marshall, to the French repub- 
lic. It gave me certain assurances that there would l3e a preponder- 
ance in the mission, sincerely disposed to be at peace with theFrench 
government and nation. Peace is undoubtedly at present the first 
object of our nation. Interest and honor are also national consider- 
ations. But interest, duly weighed, is in favor of peace even at the 
expense of spoliations past and future ; and honor cannot now be an 
object. The insnlts and injuries committed on us l)y both the bel- 
ligerent parties, from the beginning of 1793 to this day, and still 
continuing, cannot now be wiped offby engaging in w^ar w4th one 
of them. As there is great reason to expect this is the last cam- 
paign in Europe, it would certainly be better for us to rub through 
this year, as we have done through the four preceding ones, and 
hope that, on the restoration of peace, we may be able to estabhsh 
some plan for our foreign connections more likely to secure ourpeace, 
mterest, and honor, in future. Our countrymen have divided them 
selves by such strong affections, to the French and the English, that 
nothing will secure us internally bfit a divorce from both nations ; 
and this must be the object of every real American, and its attain- 
ment is practicable without much self-denial. But, for this, peace 
is necessary. Be assured of this, my dear Sir, that if we engage 
in a war during our present passions, and our present weakness in 
some quarters, our Union runs the greatest risk of not coming out 
of that war in the shape in which it enters it. My reliance for our 
preservation is in your acceptance of this mission. I know the ten- 
der circumstances w4iich will oppose themselves to it. But its dur- 
ation will be short, and its reward long. You have it in your pow- 
er, by accepting and determining the character of the mission, to se- 



376 LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

cuie the present peace and eternal union of your country. If you 
decline, on motives of private pain, a substitute may be named who 
has enlisted his passions in the present contest, and by the prepon- 
derance of his vote in the mission may entail on us calamities, your 
share in which, and your feelings, will outweigh whatever pain a 
temporary absence from your family could give you. The sacrifice 
will be short, the remorse would be never-ending. Let me then, 
my dear Sir, conjure your acceptance, and that you will, by this act, 
seal the mission with the confidence of all parties. Your nomina- 
tion has given a spring to hope, which was dead before." 

To E. RuTLEDGE. — " The events of Europe coming to us in 
astonishing and rapid succession, to wit, the public bankruptcy of 
England, Bonaparte's successes, the successes on the Rhine, the 
Austrian peace, mutiny of the British fleet, Irish insiu'rection, a de- 
mand of forty-three millions for the current services of the year, and 
above all, the warning voice, as is said, of Mr. King, to abandon all 
thought of connection with Great Britain, that she is going down ir- 
recoverably, and will sink us also, if we do not clear ourselves, have 
brought over several to the pacific party, so as, at present, to give 
majorities against all threatening measures. They go on with fri- 
gates and fortifications, because they were going on with them be- 
fore. They direct eighty thousand of their militia to hold them- 
selves in readiness for service. But they reject the propositions to 
raise cavalry, artillery, and a provisional army, and to trust private 
ships with arms in the present combustible state of things. They 
Ijelieve the present is the last campaign of Europe, and wish to rub 
through this fragment of a year as they have through the four pre- 
ceding ones, opposing patience to insult, and interest to honor. 
They will, therefore, immediately adjourn. This is indeed a most 
humiliating state of things, but it commenced in 1793. Causes 
have been adding to causes, and effects accumulating on efl'ects, 
from that time to this. We had, in 1793, the most respectable char- 
acter in the universe. What the neutral nations think of us now, 
I know not ; but we are low indeed with the belligerents. Their 
kicks and cuffs prove their contempt. If we weather the present 
storm, I hope we shall avail ourselves of the calm of peace, to place 
our foreign connections under a new and different arrangement. 
We must make the interest of every nation stand surety for their 
justice, and their own loss to follow injury to us, as effect follows its 
cause. As to every thing except commerce, we ought to divorce 
ourselves from them all. But this system would require time, tem- 
per, wisdom, and occasional sacrifice of interest : and how far all of 
these will be ours, our children may see, but we shall not. The 
passions are too high at present, to be cooled in our day. You and I 
have formerly seen warm debates and high political passions. But 
gentlemen of different politics would then speak to each other, and 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. O' / 

separate the business of the Senate from that of society. It is not 
so now. Men who have been intimate all their lives, cross the 
streets to avoid meeting, and tm-n their heads another way, lest they 
should be obliged to touch their hats. This may do for young 
men with whom passion is enjoyment. But it is afflicting to peace- 
able minds. Tranquillity is .the old man's milk. I go to enjoy it 
in a few days, and to exchange the roar and tumult of bulls and 
bears, for the prattle of my grand-childien and senile rest. Be 
these yours, my dear friend, through long years, with every other 
Ijlessing, and the attachment of friends as warm and sincere, as 
yours aflectionately." 

To Colonel Campbell. — '■ It is true that a party has risen 
up among us, or rather has come among us, which is endeavoring 
to separate us from all friendly connection with France, to unite our 
destinies with those of Great Britain, and to assimilate our govern- 
ment to theirs. Our lenity in permitting the return of the old to- 
ries, gave the first body to this party ; they have been increased by 
large importations of British merchants and factors, by American- 
merchants dealing on British capital, and by stock dealers and blink- 
ing companies, who, by the aid of a paper system, are enriching 
themselves to the ruin of our country, and swaying the government 
by their possession of the printing presses, which their wealth com- 
mands, and by other means, not always honorable to the character 
of our countrymen. Hitherto, their influence and their system have 
been irresistible, and they have raised up an executive power which 
is too strong for the legislature. But I flatter myself they have pas- 
sed their zenith. The people, while these things were doing, v/ere 
lulled into rest and security from a cause which no longer exists. 
No prepossessions now will shut their ears to truth. They begin 
to see to what port their leaders were steering during their slum- 
bers, and there is yet time to haul in, if we can avoid a war with 
France. All can be done peaceably, by the people confining their 
choice of Representatives and Senators to persons attached to re- 
publican government and the principles of 1776, not oflftce hunters, 
but farmers, whose interests are entirely agricultural. Such men 
are the true representatives of the great American interest, and are 
alone to be relied on for expressing the proper American sentiments. 
We owe gratitude to France, justice to England, good will to all, 
and subservience to none. All this must be brought about by the 
people, using their elective rights with prudence and self-possession, 
and not suffering themselves to be duped by treacherous emissaries. 
It was by the sober sense of our citizens that we were safely and 
steadily conducted from monarchy to republicanism, and it is by 
the same agency alone we can be kept from falling back." 

To J. Madison. — " I wrote you last on the 15th ; since that, 
yours of the 12th has been received. Since that, too, a great change 

33 



378 LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

has taken place in the appearance of our political atmosphere. 
The merciiants, as before, continue, a respectable part of them, to 
wish to avoid arming. The French decree operated on them as a 
sedative, producing more alarm than resentment : on the Represen- 
tatives, differently. It excited indignation highly in the war party, 
though I do not know that it had added any new friends to that side 
of the question. We still hoped a majority of about four : but the 
insane message which you will see in the public papers has had 
great effect. Exultation on the one side, and a certainty of victory ; 
while the other is petrified with astonishment. Our Evans, though 
his soul is wrapt up in the sentiments of this message, yet afraid to 
give a vote openly for it, is going off to-morrow, as is said. Those 
who count, say there are still two members of the other side who 
will come over to that of peace. If so, the members will be for war 
measures, fifty-two, against them fifty-three ; if all are present ex- 
cept Evans. The question is, what is to be attempted, supposing 
we have a majority ? I suggest two things : i. As the President 
declares he has withdrawn the executive prohibition to arm, that 
Congress should pass a legislative one. If that should fail in the 
Senate, it would heap coals of fire on their heads. 2. As, to do 
nothing and to gain time is every thing w^ith us, I propose, that they 
shall come to a resolution of adjournment, ' in order to go home and 
consult their constituents on the great crisis of American affairs now 
existing.' Besides gaining time enough by this, to allow the de- 
scent on England to have its effect here as well as thei'e, it will be 
a means of exciting the whole body of the people from the state of 
inattention in which they are ; it will require every member to call 
for the sense of his district by petition or instruction ; it will show 
the people with which side of the House their safety as well as their 
rights rest, by showing them which is for war and which for peace ; 
and their representatives will return here invigorated by the avowed 
support of the American people. I do not know, however, whether 
this will be approved, as there has been little consultation on the 
subject. We see a new instance of the inefliciency of constitution- 
al guards. We had relied with great security on that provision, 
which requires two-thirds of the legislature to declare war. But 
this is completely eluded by a majority's taking such measures as 
will be sure to produce war. I wrote you in my last, that an at- 
tempt was to be made on that day in Senate, to cleclare the inexpe- 
diency of renewing our treaties. But the measure is put off under 
the hope of its being attempted under better auspices. To return to 
the subject of war, it is quite impossible, when we consider all the 
existing circumstances, to find any reason in its favor resulting from 
views either of interest or honor, and plausible enough to impose 
even on the weakest mind ; and especially, when it would be un- 
dertaken l3y a majority of one or two only. Whatever then be our 
stock of charity or liberality, we must resort to other views. And 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 379 

those SO well known to have been entertained at Annapolis, and af- 
terwards at the grand convention; by a particular set of men, present 
themselves as those alone which can account for so extraordinary a 
degree of impetuosity. Perhaps; instead of what was then in con- 
templation, a separation of the Union, which has been so much the 
topic to the eastward of late, may be the thing aimed at." 

To J. Madison. — " The bill for the naval armament [twelve 
vessels] passed by a majority of about four to three in the House of 
Representatives ; all restrictions on the objects for which the vessels 
should be used were struck out. The bill for establishing a depart- 
ment of Secretary of the Navy was tried yesterday, on its passage 
to the third reading, and prevailed by forty-seven against forty-one. 
It will be read the third time to-day. The provisional army of twen- 
ty thousand men will meet some difficulty. It would smely be re- 
jected if our members were all here. Giles, Clopton, Cabell, and 
Nicholas have gone, and Clay goes to-morrow. He received here 
news of the death of his wife. Parker has completely gone over to 
the war party. In this state of things they will carry what they 
please. One of the Avar party, in a iit of unguarded passion, de- 
clared some time ago they would pass a citizen bill, an alien bill, 
and a sedition bill : accordingly, some days ago, Coit laid a motion 
on the table of the House of Representatives for modifying the citi- 
zen law. Their threats pointed at Gallatin, and it is believed they 
will endeavor to reach him by this bill. Yesterday Mr. Hillhouse 
laid on the table of the Senate a motion for giving power to send 
away suspected aliens. This is understood to be meant for Volney 
and Collot. But it will not stop there when it gets into a course of 
execution. There is now only wanting, to accomplish the whole 
declaration before mentioned, a sedition bill, which we shall cer- 
tainljr soon see proposed. The object of that, is the suppression of 
the whig presses. Bache's has been particularly named. That pa- 
per, and also Carey's totter for want of subscriptions. We should 
really exert ourselves to procure them, for if these papers fall, repub- 
licanism will be entirely brow beatea." 

To J. Taylor. — " Mr. New showed me your letter on the 
subject of the patent, which gave me an opportunity of observing 
what you said as to the effect, with you, of pubhc proceedings, 
and that it was not unwise now to estimate the separate mass of 
Yirginia and North Carolina, wnih a view to their separate exis- 
tence. It is true that we are completely under the saddle of 
Massachusetts and Connecticut, and that they ride us very hard, 
cruelly insulting our feeUngs, as well as exhausting our strength 
and subsistence. Their natural friends, the three other eastern 
States, join them from a sort of family pride, and they have the 
art to divide certain other parts of the Union so as to make use 
of them to govern the whole. This is not new, it is the old prac- 



3S0 LIFE, WRITINGS. AND OPINIONS 



tice of despots ; to use a part of the peojjle to keep the rest in order. 
And those who have once got an ascendency, and possessed them- 
selves of all the resources of the nation, their revenues and otlices, 
have immense means for retaining their advantage. But our pre- 
sent situation is not a natural one. The repubUcans, through ev- 
ery part of the Union, say, that it was the irresistible influence and 
popularity of General Washington played off by the chinning of 
Hamilton, which turned the government over to anti republican 
hands, or turned the republicans chosen by the people into anti-re- 
publicans. He delivered it over to his successor in this state, and 
verv untoward events since, improved with great artitice, have pro- 
duced on the public mind the impressions we sec. But still I re- 
peat it, this is not the natural state. Time alone would bring round 
an order of things more correspondent to the sentiments of our con- 
stituents. But are there no events impending, which will do it 
within a few months I The crisis with England, the public and 
authentic avowal of sentiments hostile to the leading principles of 
our constitution, the prospect of a war, in which we shall stand 
alone, land tax, stamp tax, increase of public debt, &:c. Be this as 
it may, in every free and deliberating society, there must, from the 
nature of. man, be opposite parties, and violent dissensions and dis- 
cords ; and one of these, for the most part, must prevail over the oth- 
er for a longer or shorter time. Perhaps this party division is ne- 
cessary to induce each to watch and delate to the people the pro- 
ceedings of the other. But if on a temporary superiority of the one 
party, the other is to resort to a scission of the Union, no federal gov- 
ernment can ever exist. If to rid ourselves of the present rule of 
Massachusetts and Connecticut, we break the Union, will the evil 
stop there ? Suppose the New^ England States alone cut off, will 
our natures be changed ? Are we not men still to the south of thai, 
and with all the passions of men ? Immediately, we shall see a 
Pennsylvania and a Virginia party arise in the residuary confeder- 
acy, and the pubhc mind will be distracted with the same party 
spirit. What a game too will the one party have in their hands, 
by eternally threatening the Other, that unless they do so and so, 
they will join their northern neighbors. If we reduce our Union to 
Virginia and North Carolina, immediately the conflict will l)e estab 
lished between the representatives of these two States, and they will 
end by breaking into their simple units. Seeing, therefore, that an 
association of men who will not cjuarrel with one another is a thing 
which never yet existed, from the greatest confederacy of nations 
down to a town meeting or a vestry ; seeing that we nnist have 
somebody to quarrel with, I had rather keep our New England as- 
sociates for that purpose, than to see our bickerings transferred to 
others. They are circumscribed within such narrow limits, and 
their population so full, ihat their members Avill ever be the minor- 
ity, and they are marked, like the Jews, with such a perversity of 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 381 

character, as to constitute, from that circumstance, the natural di- 
vision of our parties. A little patience, and we shall see the reign 
of witches pass over, their spells dissolved, and the people recovering 
their true sight, restoring their government to its true principles. It 
is true, that in the mean time, we are suflTering deeply in spirit, and 
incurring the horrors of a war, and long oppressions of enormous 
public debt. But who can say what would be the evils of a scission, 
and when and where they would e»d ? Better keep together as 
we are, haul off from Europe as soon as we can, and from all at- 
tachment to any portions of it ; and if they show their powers just 
sufficiently to hoop us together, it v/ill be the happiest situation in 
which we can exist. If the game runs sometimes against us at 
home, we must have patience till luck turns, and then we shall have 
an opportunity of winning back the ])riuciples we have lost. For 
this is a game where principles are the stake. Better luck, there- 
fore, to us all, and health, happiness, and friendly salutations to 
yourself." 

To E. Pendleton. — " I wrote you a petition on the 29th of 
January. I know the extent of this trespass on your tranquillity, 
and how indiscreet it would have been under any other circumstan- 
ces. But the fate of this country, whether it shall be irretrievably 
plunged into a form of government rejected by the makers of the 
constitution, or shall get back to the true principles of that instru- 
ment, depends on the turn which things may take within a short 
period of time ensuing the present moment. The violations of the 
constitution, propensities to war, to expense, and to a particular foi- 
eign connection, w^hich we have lately seen, are becoming evident 
to the people, and are dispelling that mist which X. Y. Z. has 
spread before their e3^es. This State is coming forward with a 
boldness not yet seen. Even the German counties of York and 
Lancaster, hitherto tlie most devoted, have come about, and by pe- 
titions with four thousand signers remonstrate against the alien and 
sedition laws, standing armies, and discretionary powers in the Pres- 
ident, New- York and Jersey are also getting into great agitation. 
In this State, we fear that the ill-designing may produce insurrec- 
tion. Nothing could be so fatal. Any thing like force would check 
the progress of the public opinion and rally them round the gov- 
ernment. This is not the kind of opposition the American people 
will permit. But keep away all show of force, and they will bear 
down the evil {propensities of the government, by the constitutional 
means of election and petition. If we can keep quiet, therefore, the 
tide now turning will take a steady and proper direction. Even in 
New Hampshire there are strong symptoms of a rising inquietude. 
In this state of things, my dear Sir, it is more in your power than 
any other man's in the United States, to give the coup de grace to 
she ruinous principles and practices we have seen. In hopes you 

33* 



382 LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

have consented to it, I shall fiiinish to you some additional matter 
which has arisen since my last." 

To T. LoMAX. — " You ask for any communication I may be 
able to make, which may administer comfort to you. I can give 
that which is soUd. The spirit of 1776 is not dead. It has only 
been slumbering. The body of the American people is substantial- 
jv republican. But their virtuous feelings have been played on by 
some fact with more fiction ; they have been the dupes of artful 
manoeuvres, and made for a moment to be willing instruments in 
forging cliains for themselves. But time and truth have dissipated 
the delusion, and opened their eyes. They see now that France has 
sincerely wished peace, and their seducers have wished war, as well 
for the loaves and fishes which arise out of war expenses, as for the 
chance of changing the constitution, while the people should have 
time to contemplate nothing but the levies of men and money. 
Pennsylvania, Jersey, and New York are coming majestically round 
to the true principles. In Pennsylvania, thirteen out of twenty- 
two counties had already petitioned on tlie alien and sedition laws. 
Jersey and New York had begun the same movement, and though 
the rising of Congress stops that channel for the expression of their 
sentiment, the sentiment is going on rapidly, and be fore_ their next 
meetingthose threeStates will be solidly embodied in sentiment with 
the six southern and western ones. The atrocious proceedings of 
l^'rance towards this country had well nigh destroyed its liberties. 
The Anglomen and monocrats had so artfully confounded the cause 
of France with that of freedom, that both went down in the same 
scale. I sincerely join you in abjuring all political connection with 
every foreign power : and though I coidially wish well to the pro- 
gress of liberty in all nations, and would for ever give it the weight 
of our countenance, yet they ore not to be touched without contam- 
ination, from their other bad principles. Commerce with all na- 
tions, alliance with none, should be our motto." 

To E. Randolph.-^-" Of all the doctrines which have ever been 
broached by the federal governjnent, the novel one, of the common 
law being in force and cognizable as an existing law in their courts, 
is to me the most formidable. All their other assumptions of un- 
given powers have been in the detail. The bank law, the treaty 
doctrine, the sedition act, alien act, the undertaking to change the 
State lav.'s of evidence in the State courts by certain parts of the 
stamp act, &c. &c. have been solitary, unconsequential, timid 
things, in comparison with the audacious, barefaced, and sweeping 
pretension to a system of law for the United States, without the 
adoption of their legislature, and so infinitely beyond their power to 
adopt. If this assumption be yielded to, the State courts may be 
shut up, as there will then be nothing to hinder citizens of the 
same State suing each other in the federal courts in every case, as 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. • 383 

Oil a bond for instance, because the common law obliges nayment 
of it, and the common law they say is their law. * * * 

" I think it will be of great importance, when you come to the 
proper part, to portray at full length the consequences of this new 
doctrine, that the common law is the law of the United States, and 
that their courts have, of course, jurisdiction co-extensive v/ith the 
law, that is to say, general over all cases and persons. But great 
heavens ! Who could have conceived in 1789, that within ten years 
we should have to combat such windmills." 

To S. Adams. — " A letter from you, ray resjiectable friend, after 
three and twenty years of separation, has given me a pleasure I 
cannot express. It recalls to my mind the anxious days we then 
passed in struggling for the cause of mankind. Your piinciples 
have been tested in the crucible of time, and have come out jnue. 
You have proved that it was monarchy, and not merely British 
monarchy, you opposed. A government by representatives, elected 
by the people at short periods, was our object, and our maxim at 
that day was, ' Where annual election ends, tyranny liegins ;' nor 
have our departures from it been sanctioned by the happiness of 
their effects. A debt of an hundred millions growing by usurious 
interest, and an artificial paper phalanx overruling the agricultural 
mass of our country, witli other et ceteras., have a portentous as- 
pect. 

" I fear our friends on the other side the water, laboring in the 
same cause, liave yet a great deal of crime and of miser}^ to wade 
through. My confidence had l)cen placed in the head, not in the 
heart of Bonaparte. I hoped he would calculate truly the differ- 
ence between the fame of a Washington and a Cromwell. What- 
ever his views may be, he has at least transferred the destinies of 
the republic from the civil to the military arm. Some will use this 
as a lesson against the practicabihty of republican government. I 
read it as" a lesson against the danger of standing armies. 

" Adieu, my ever respected and venerable friend. May that kind 
overruling Providence which has so long spared you to our coun- 
try, still foster your remaining years with whatever may make them 
comfortable to yourself and soothing to your friends. Accept the 
cordial salutations of your aflectionate friend." 

To G. Granger;—'- The true theory of our constitution is sure- 
ly the wisest and best, that the States are independent as to every 
thing within themselves, and united as to every thing respecting 
foreign nations. Let the General Government be reduced to for- 
eign concerns only, and let our affairs be disentangled from those of 
all other nations, except as to commerce, which the merchants will 
manage the better, the more they are left free to manage for them- 
selves, and our General Government may be reduced to a very sim- 
ple organization, and a very unexpensive one ; a few plain duties to 



3S4 ■ LIFE, WRITINGS. AND OPINIONS 

be performed by a few servants. But I repeat, that this simple 
and economical mode of government can never l3e secured, if the 
New England States continue to support the contrary system. I 
rejoice, therefore, in every appearance of their returning to those 
principles which I had always imagined to be almost innate in 
them. In this State, a few persons were deluded by the X. Y. Z. 
duperies. You saw the effect of it in our last Congressional rep- 
resentatives, chosen under their influence. This experiment on 
their credulity is now seen into, and our next representation will 
1)6 as republican as it has heretofore been. On the whole, we hope, 
that by a part of the Union having held on to the principles of the 
constitution, time has been given to the States to recover from the 
temporary phrenzy into which they have been decoyed, to rally 
round the constitution, and to rescue it from the destruction witli 
which it had been threatened even at their own hands." 

To Doctor Rush. — " I promised you a letter on Christianity, 
which I have not forgotten. On the contrary, it is because I have 
reflected on it, that I find much more time necessary for it than I 
can at present dispose of I have a view of the subject which ought 
to displease neither the rational Christian nor Deist, and would re- 
concile many to a character they have too hastily rejected. I do 
not know that it woidd reconcile the genus irritabile vatimi. 
who are all in arms against me. Their hostility is on too interest- 
ing ground to be softened. The delusion into which the X. Y. Z. 
plot showed it possible to jnish the people ; the successful experi- 
ment made under the prevalence of that delusion on the clause of 
the constitution, which, while it secured the freedom of the press, 
covered also the freedom of religion, had given to the clergy a very 
favorite hope of obtaining an establishment of a particular form of 
Christianity through the United States ; and as every sect believes 
its own form the true one, every one perhaps hoped for his own, 
but especially the Episcopalians and Congregationalists. The re- 
turning good sense of our coimtry threatens abortion to their hopes, 
and they believe that any portion of power confided to me, will be 
exerted in opposition to their schemes. And they believe rightly ; 
for I have sworn, upon the altar of God, eternal hostility against 
every form of tyranny over the mind of man. But this is all they 
iiave to fear from me ; and enough too in their opinion. And 
this is the cause of their printing lying pamphlets against me, forg- 
ing conversations for me with Mazzei, Bishop Madison, «fcc. which 
are absolute falsehoods without a circumstance of truth to rest on : 
falsehoods, too, of which I acquit Mazzei and Bishop Madison, for 
they are men of truth." 

Despairing of making any head against the monarchical ascen- 
dency in Congress, where they were brow-beaten by a bold and 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 3S5 

overwhelming majority, the repubhcan leaders formed the determin- 
ation, on the recommendation of Mr. Jeflerson, to abandon that 
ground, one and all, to retire within their respective State Legisla- 
tures, 'embody whatsoever resistance they could, and if inetiectual, 
to perish there as in the last ditch.' This course was accordingly 
adopted.- Mr. Jeflerson remained alone in the Senate, where his 
office confined him, and Mr. Gallatin, in the House. Continuing 
undismayed at their posts, in defiance of the insults and indignities 
of the dominant faction, the)' pieserved the repuljhcans in Congress, 
in firm phalanx, until the State Legislatures could bring up the 
weight of their resistance. Mr. Madison went into the Yirginia 
Legislature, and Mr. Nicholas into the Legislature of Kentucky. 
At a consultation between these gentlemen and Mr. Jefferson, it 
was agreed, that the engaging the co-operation of these two Slates, 
who were w^edded in principle and sympathy, in an energetic pro- 
testation against the constitutionalit]/ of various acts of administra- 
tion, particularly the Alien and Sedition laws, would be the "best 
method of manifesting the pubUc sentiment, and awaking the peo- 
ple to a proper cognizance of their affairs. Mr. Jefferson was press- 
ed b}^ the other gentlemen to draft the necessary resolutions foi- 
this purpose, to be offered to the Legislature of Kentucky. After a 
solemn assurance given, that it should never be known from what 
quarter they came, he consented ; and Mr. Nicholas undertook, on 
his part, to propose and carry them through. Accordingly on the 
10th of November, 1798, they Avere proposed by Mr. Nicholas, and 
passed with great unanimity. 

These were the celebrated "Kentuckv Resolutions," which are al- 
lowed to have saved the Constitution in its last struggle. They were 
followed, the next month, by the equally celebrated " Virginia Res- 
olutions,"' drawn by Mr. Madison, on principles entirely analogous ; 
and afterwards, by corresponding demonstrations of political senti- 
ment in other republican States. They are too voluminous to 
admit insertion, in extenso. The principles advanced b}^ them, 
established the republican creed on the fundamental and agitating 
question ct)ncerning the distribution of powers, intended b)^ the 
Constitution, between the General and State Governments. They 
resolved, that the general compact of union between the States, 
was constituted for special purposes, and with certain definite pow- 
ers, each State reserving to itself the residuarv mass of risrht for 



38G 



LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 



self govonment. That Avhenever the General Government as- 
sumed undelegated powers, its acts were inauthoritative and void ; 
and that each State, being an integral party to the compact, of 
which there was no conunon judge, had a right to judge for it- 
self, as well of infractions, as of the mode and measure of re- 
dress. After demonstrating the unconstitutionality of the Alien 
and Sedition laws, on a variety of grounds, and by a series of elab- 
orate deductions, after declaring an inviolable attachment to the 
Union, and an anxious desire for its preservation, the resolutions 
conclude as follows : 

'• That these and successive acts of the same character, unless 
arrested on the threshold, may tend to drive these States into revo- 
lution and blood, and will furnish new calumnies against repubh- 
can governments, and new pretexts for those who wish it to be be- 
lieved, that man cannot be governed but by a rod of iron ; that it 
would be a dangerons delusion, were a confidence in the men of our 
choice, to silence our fears for the safety of our rights ; that confi- 
dence is every where the parent of despotism ; free government is 
founded in jealousy and not in confidence ; it is jealousy and not 
confidence which prescribes limited Constitutions to bind down 
those whom we are obliged to trust with power ; that our Constitu- 
tion has accordingly fixed the limits to which and no further our 
confidence may go ; and let the honest advocate of confidence read 
the Alien and Sedition acts, and say if the Constitution has not 
been wise in fixing limits to the Government it created, and wheth- 
er we should be wise in destroying those limits? I^et him say 
Avhat the Government is if it be not a tyranny, which the men of 
our choice have conferred on the President, and the President of 
our choice has assented to and accepted over the friendly strangers, 
to whom the mild spirit of our country and its laws bad pledged 
hospitality and protection ; that the men of our choice have more 
respected the bare suspicions of the President, than the solid rights 
of innocence, the claims of justification, the sacred force of truth, 
and the forms and substance of law and justice. In questions of 
, power then let no more be heard of confidence in man, but bind 
him down from mischief, by the chains of the Constitution. That 
this Commonwealth does therefore, call on its Co-States for an ex- 
pression of their sentiments on the acts concerning Ahens, and for 
the punishment of certain crimes herein before specified, plainly 
declaring whether these acts are or are not authorized by the Fed- 
eral Compact. And it doubts not that their sense will be so an- 
nounced, as to prove their attachment unaltered to limited govern- 
ment, whether general or particular, and that the rights and liber 
ties of their Co-States, will be exposed to no dangers by remaining 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON, 387 

• 

embarked on a common bottom with their own — That they will 
concur with this Commonwealth in considering the said acts as so 
palpably against the Constitution, as to amount to an undisguised 
declaration, that the compact is not meant to be the measure of the 
powers of the General Government, but that it will proceed in the 
exercise over these States of all powers whatsoever — That they 
will view this as seizing the rights of the States, and consolidating 
them in the hands of the General Government with a power as- 
sumed to bind the States, (not merely in cases made Federal,) liut 
in all cases whatsoever, by laws made, not with their consent, but 
by others against their consent — That this would be to surrender 
the form of government we have chosen, and to live under one de- 
riving its powers from its own will, and not from our authority — 
and that the Co-States recurring to their natural right in cases not 
made Federal, will concur in declaring these acts void and of no 
force, and will each unite with this Commonwealth in requesting 
their repeal at the next session of Congress." 

From the warmth with which Mr. Jefferson embarked in oppo- 
sition to the administration, it might be inferred that he permitted 
his political feelings to influence him in the discharge of his official 
duties. But this was not the case. He presided over the Senate, 
with a dignity never excelled, and, although composed for the most 
part of his political enemies, with an impartiality, which the rancor 
and madness of the times never attempted to impeach. How at- 
tentive he was to the duties of his station, and how accurately he 
understood the rules of parliamentary order, incident to that station, 
is attested by his " Manual,"' a work which he at this time pub-, 
iished, and which has ever since been the guide of both Houses of 
Congress. 

Soon after the election of Mr. Adams, the poUtical contest for his 
successor was renewed with increased vehemence and agitation. 
Mr. Jefferson was again, with one accord, selected as the republican 
candidate for the Presidency, and Aaron Burr of New York, for 
the office of Vice President. With equal unanimity, John Adams, 
the incumbent, and Charles C. Pinkney of South Carolina, were 
designated as the candidates of the federal party. 

It would be a tedious and painful task to describe the long and 
terrible ordeal of bigotry, fanaticism, political malevoleiice and vitu- 
peration, through which Mr. Jefferson was called to pass. The 
general character of those scandalous annals is matter of prover- 
bial notoriety. The press was made to groan with daily and inor- 



388 LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

diiiate ravings against a public character, whose principles had rev- 
olutionized one hemisphere, and astonished and agitated the other ; 
and whose only crime was, that he had not joined in the audacious 
conspiracy to cheat the people of all that they had recovered and 
consecrated by their blood and treasure. The pulpit was debauch- 
ed into the profligate service, and became the ready handmaid of 
the press, in echoing and re-echoing the licentious reprobations of 
the monarchical faction. No one who was a stranger to that tre- 
mendous contest, can adequately conceive the diabolism and in- 
sanity of the pulpit fulminations and pamphleteering anathemas of 
the traitorous conspirators of Church and State, to identify republi- 
canism with infidelity, and sink them irrecoverably together. Eve- 
ry instrument of imposition was employed, and every species of 
engine which could be brought to bear upon the human passions, 
was resorted to for intimidation, for crushing the power of thought 
and speech, and perpetuating a delusion, little inferior to New Eng- 
land witchcraft, under which the combination of political Maratists 
and clerical alarmists had undertaken to bind the understandings 
of the people, and trample their rights in the dust The clergy of 
New England were the chiefest of the movers and participators in 
this atrocious crusade against the principles of the Revolution, and 
their adoring, persevering advocate ; for they believed, and be- 
lieved rightly, that every portion of power committed to him would 
be exerted in eternal opposition to their schemes. 

Time would fail us to specify the innumerable fabrications of 
crime and scurrilit}', with which the myrmidons of monarchism 
attempted to blacken and beat down the character of the republican 
candidate. He "was accused of having betrayed his native State 
into the hands of the enemy on two occasions, while at the head 
of the government, by a cowardly abandonment of Richmond, on 
the sudden invasion of Arnold, and subsequently, by an ignomin- 
ious fliglit from Monticello, on the approach of Tarlton, with cir- 
cumstances of svich panic and precipitation as to occasion a fall 
from his horse, and the dislocation of his shoulder. He was charg- 
ed with being the libeler of Washington, and the retainer of mer- 
cenary libelers to blast the reputation of the father of his country. 
He was accused of implacable hostiUty to the Constitution, of em- 
ploying foreign scribblers to write it down ; and of aiming at the 
annihilation of all law, order, and government, and the introduc- 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 389 

tion of general anarchy and licentiousness. He was familiarly 
characterized as an atheist, and the patron saint of French atheists, 
whom he encouraged to migrate to this country ; as a demagogue 
and disorganizer, industriously sapping the foundations of religion 
and virtue, and insidiously paving the way for the establishment of 
a legalized system of infidehty and libertinism. Decency would 
revolt were we to pursue the catalogue into that low region of olj- 
scene invective, which was employed to vihfy his private charac- 
ter, and which abounded in fabrications that have been the theme 
of infinite lampoonry, in prose and verse. 

While the madness of faction was thus raging, and attempting 
to despoil him of his well earned reputation, Mr. Jefferson remained 
a passive spectator of the scene. Covered with the impenetrable 
aegis of truth, and supported by a proud consciousness of his inno- 
cence, he surveyed, with godlike composure, the impotent tempest 
of detraction which was furiously howling around him. He was 
not insensible under the ferocious depredations upon his character ; 
on the contrary, no man was more feelingly alive to unmerited cen- 
sure, or to well-grounded applause. But his confidence in the ulti- 
mate justice of pubhc opinion was even stronger than his sensibil- 
ity under its temporary reproaches, and he quietly submitted to the 
licentiousaees of the press, as an alloy which was inseparable from the 
inestimable boon of its freedom. Besides, he felt a glorious and ani- 
mating pride in being made the subject of the first great experiment 
in the world, which was to test the soundness of his favorite prin- 
ple, ' that freedom of- discussion, unaided by power, was sufficient 
for the protection and propagation of truth.' Although frequently 
solicited by his friends, he never would descend to a newspaper 
refutation of a single calumny ; and he never, in a single instance, 
appealed to the righteous retribution of the laws. " I know," ho 
wrote to a friend in Connecticut, " that I might have filled the 
coiuts of the United States v. ith actions for these slanders, and have 
ruined, perhaps, many persons who are not innocent. But this 
would be no equivalent for the loss of character. I leave them, 
therefore, to the reproof of their own consciences. If these do not 
condemn them, there will yet come a day when the false witness will 
meet a judge who has not slept over his slanders. .If the Rev. 
Cotton Mather Smith, of Shena, believed this as firmly as I do, he 
would surely never have affirmed that 1 had obtained my property 

34 



390 LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 



by fraud and robbery ; that in one instance I had defrauded and 
robbed a widow and fatherless children of an estate to which I was 
executor, of ten thousand pounds sterling, by' keeping the property 
and paying them in money at the nominal rate, when it was worth 
no more than forty to one ; and that all this could be proved."' 
Every tittle of this pulpit denunciation was founded in falsehood. 
Mr. Jefferson never was executor but in two instances, which hap- 
pened about the beginning of the Revolution ; and he never med- 
dled in either executorship. In one of the cases only were there 
a widow and children. She was his sister, and retained and man- 
aged the estate exclusively in her own hands. In the other case, 
he was co-parcener, and only received on division the equal por- 
tion allotted him. Again, his property was all patrimonial, except 
about seven or eight hundred pounds' worth, purchased by himseli 
and paid for, not to widows and orphans, but to the gentleman from 
whom he purchased. The charges against Mr. Jefferson were in- 
deed so audacious, and persevered in with such unblushing assur- 
ance, as to excite the solicitude of his friends in different sections 
of the Union ; and they addressed him frequent letters of inquiry 
on the subiect, These he invariably answered with the frankness 
and liberality which belonged to his disposition ; but he annexed 
to every answer a restraint against its publication. In a letter of 
this kind to Samuel Smith of Maryland, he concludes : 

" These observations will show you how far the imputations in 
the paragraph sent me approach the truth. Yet they are not in- 
tended for a newspaper. At a very early period of my life, I deter- 
mined never to put a sentence into any newspaper. I have religious- 
ly adhered to the resolution through my life, and have great reason 
to be contented with it. Were I to undertake to answer the ca- 
lumnies of the newspapers, it would be more than all my own time 
and that of twenty aids could effect. For while I should be an- 
swering one, twenty new ones would be invented. I have thought 
it better to trust to "the justice of my countrymen, tliat they would 
judge me by what they see of my conduct on the stage where they 
have placed me, and what they knew of me before the epoch, since 
v/hich a particular party has supposed it might answer some view 
of theirs to vihfy me in the public eye. Some, I know, will not 
reflect how apocryphal is the testimony of enemies so palpably 
betraying the views with which they give it. But this is an injury 
to which duty requires every one to submit whom the public think 
proper to call into its councils. I thank you, my dear Sir, for the 
interest you have for me on this occasion. Though I have made 



OP THOMAS JEFFERSON. 391 

up my mind" not to snffei- calumny to disturb my tranquillity, yet I 
retain all my sensibilities for the approbation of the good and just. 
That is, indeed, the chief consolation for the hatred of so many, 
who, without the least personal knowledge, and on the sacred evi- 
dence of Porcupine and Fcnno alone, cover me with their implaca- 
ble hatred. The only return I will ever make them, will be to 
do them all the good I can, in spite of their teeth."' 

The result of this memoraljle conflict is fresh in the minds of our 
countrymen. It established an illustrious epoch in the history of 
the world. How consolatory to the friend of man, how inspiring to 
the votary of human rights, under every pressure of adversity, is 
the recollection of that bloodless and glory-hallowed triumph! It 
realized, beyond the power of future dismay, the confidence of those 
who believe that man may be intrusted with the government of 
his affairs, while it carried a proportional abortion to the hopes and 
machinations of the apostate revilers of republicanism. Its memo- 
ry will be immortal, as the era of the political resurrection of man, 
by the triumphant re-establislnnent, under new and better auspices, 
of the sacred principles of the Revolution. 

Mr. Jefferson was successful over his competitor by a vote of 
seventy-three to sixty-five, in the electoral colleges. The states of 
New York, Virginia, South Carolina, Georgia, Kentucky and Tea- 
nessee, were unanimous for him. The New England states, with 
Delaware and New Jersey, were unanimous for Mr. Adams. Penn- 
sylvania and North Carolina, acting by districts, gave a majority 
of votes to Mr. Jefferson ; and Maryland was equally divicled be- 
tween the two candidates. 

But owing to a strange defect in the Constitution, or an unac- 
countable inattention to its provisions, an unexpected contingency 
arose which threatened to reverse the declared will of the nation, 
and to place in the Executive Chair a rnan, who, it was notorious, 
had not received a solitary vote for that station. Mr. Jefferson was 
elected President, and Aaron Burr Vice President, by an eqnal 
number of votes ; and, as the Constitution required no specification 
of the .office, for which each respectively was designed, but simply 
confined the choice to the jiperson having the highest mmiber of 
votes, the consequence was that neither had the majority required 
by law. Under this dilemma, the election devolved on the House 
of Representatives, and produced storms of an unprecedented char- 
acter. The federalists seized on the occasion, as a capital one for 



392 LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

acting on the monarchical principle of corruption, and bidding de- 
fiance to the acknowledged suffrage of the people. They held a 
private caucus, and resolved on the daring alternatives, either to 
elect Burr in the room of Jefferson, or, by preventing a choice al- 
together, to create an interregnum. In the latter event, they agreed 
to pass an act of Congress, devolving the g'overnment on a Presi- 
dent, pro tem, of the Senate, who would of course l3e a person of 
their choice. On the developement of this conspirac)^, a tremen- 
dous sensation was excited. The republicans declared, one and all, 
openly and firmly, that in the event of a legislative usurpation, de- 
volving the government on a President of the Senate, the repulili- 
can states would instantly arm, and resist the usurpation by force. 
On the lltli of February, the House pioceeded in the manner 
prescribed by the Constitution to elect a President of the United 
States. The representatives were required to vote by States, in- 
stead of by persons. On opening the ballots it appeared there 
were eight states for Mr. Jefferson, six for Colonel Burr, and two 
divided ; consequently there was no choice. The process w^as re- 
peated, and the same result was indicated, tbiiough five successive 
days and nights, and thirty-fi ve bailoiings. During this long 
and ay/ful suspense^ the decision depended on a single vote ! Either 
one of the federalists from the divided States, Yermont and Mary- 
land coming over to the republican side, would have made a ninth 
State, and decided the election in favor of Mr. Jefferson. But the 
opposition appeared invincible in the resolution to have a minority 
President, or to break up the elective succession. The republicans, 
on the other hand, deserve eternal praises for the inflexibility of 
their adherence to the will of tlie people. Various and v.^eighty 
overtures were made to them, but they resisted them all ; while, 
what is equally honorable, not a single overture is pretended to have 
proceeded from them ! Their fidelity on tliis occasion, was even 
stronger than their love of existence; for while they were equally 
incapable of being either the subjects or the agents of corruption, 
they would have resigned their fives, at any moment, to have saved 
the election of Mr. Jefferson. A precious reminiscence, in proof of 
this assertion, is related by a distinguished lady* of Washington :— 
" Mr. N. one of the representatives from Maryland, had been for 



Mrs. S. H. Smith, See Mrs. Hale's Magazine, Nov. 1831. 



OF THOMAS JEFFRSON. 393 

some weeks confined to his bed, and was so ill that his life was con- 
sidered in danger ; ill as he was, he insisted on being carried to the 
Hall of Representatives, in order to give his vote. The physicians 
Absolutely forbid such a proceeding ; he insisted, and they appealed 
to his wife, teUing her that such a removal, and the consequent ex- 
citement, might prove fatal to his life. ' Be it so, then,' said she. 
' if my husband' must die, let it be at the post of duty ; no weak- 
ness of mine shall oppose his noble resolution.' How little did 
these physicians expect, when they appealed to the influence of one 
of the fondest and most devoted of wives, this more than Spartan 
courage, and in an American, to find a Roman matron ! Of course 
they withdrew their opposition ; the patient was carried, in a litter, 
to the Capitol, where a bed was prepared for him in an anti-room 
adjoining the Senate Chamber, followed by his heroic wife, where, 
during the four or five days and nights of ballotting, she remained 
by his side ; supporting by various restoratives, but more by her 
presence, the strength of the feeble and almost expiring invalid, 
who with difiiculty traced the name of Jefferson each time the l)al- 
lot box was handed to him. Such was the spirit of that day— the 
spirit of that party !" 

Finally, on the thirty-sixth ballot, the opposition gave way, ap 
parently from sheer exhaustion. Mr. Morris of Vermont withdrew, 
which enabled his only colleague, Lyon, to give the vote of that State 
to Mr. Jefferson. The four federalists from Maryland, who had hith- 
erto supported Burr, voted blanks, which made the positive ticket 
of their colleagues the vote of that State. South Carolina and 
Delaware, both represented by federalists, voted blanks. So there 
were, on the last ballot, ten States for Mr. Jefferson, four for Colo- 
nel Burr, and two blanks.* The result, on being proclaimed, was 
greeted with loud and reiterated bursts of applause from the galle- 
ries, which were immediately ordered by the Speaker to be cleared. 
Mr. Jefferson did not receive a federal, nor Colonel Burr a demo- 
cratic vote. The latter became, of course. Vice President ; but his 
apostacy separated him irretrievably from the confidence of the re- 



* On the last ballot, Vermont, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Mary- 
land, Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia, Kentucky and Tennessee, voted for 
Mr. Jefferson. New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island, 
for Colonel Burr. Delaware and South Carolina^ voted blanks. 

34* 



394 LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

publicans, while it demonstrated his fitness for those treasonable pur- 
}X)ses of ambition which he subsequently manifested. 

During the five days' pendency of the election, unwearied exer- 
tions were made by the federalists, to seduce Mr. Jefferson from his 
political principles, and to obtain from him terms and promises. 
But his virtue was impregnable. He uniformly and unequivocally 
declared to them, that he ' would not receive the government on 
capitulation, nor go into it with his hands tied.' Coming out of 
the Senate Chamber one day, he found Gouverneur Morris on the 
steps, who stopped him, and began a conversation on the strange 
and portentous state of things then existing. He went on to ob- 
serve that the reasons Avhy the minority of States was so opposed 
to his (Jefferson's) election, were, 1, He would turn all the federal- 
ists out of office ; 2, Put down the navy ; 3, Wipe off the public 
debt. That he need only declare, or authorize his friends to de- 
i;lare, that he would not take these steps, and instantly the event 
of the election would be fixed. Mr. Jefferson replied, that he 
should leave the world to judge of the course he intended to pur- 
sue, by that which he had pursued hitherto, l^elieving it his duty 
10 be passive and silent during the present scene ; that he should 
never go into the office of President with his hands tied l)y any 
onditions which should hinder him from pursuing the measures 
which he should deem for the public good. 

About the same time, he called on Mr. Adams, and they convers- 
ed together on the existing state of things. Mr. Jefferson observed, 
that a very dangerous experiment was then in contemplation, to de- 
i'eat the Presidential election by an act of Congress declaring the 
right of the Senate to name a President of their body, to devolve on 
him the government during any interregnum ; that such a mea- 
ure would proljably produce resistance b)^ force,; and incalculable 
consequences, which it would be in his power to prevent by nega- 
tiving such an act. Mr. Adams appeared to think the expedient 
justifiable, and observed that it was in Mr. Jefferson's power to de- 
cide the election in an instant, by declaring he would not turn out 
the federal officers, nor put down the navy, nor spunge the national 
debt. Finding his opinion decided on the propriety of a legislative 
i.isurpation of the government, Mr. Jefferson pressed the point no 
farther, but observed that the world must judge as to himself of the 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 395 

futiiie by the past, and turned the conversation on other subjects.* 
The same propositions were intimated to him, about the sametimey 
by Dwight Foster of Massachusetts, and the same unequivocal and 
unyielding attitude was maintained. The causes of the final aban- 
donment of the contest by the federalists, are stated in the following- 
extracts from the private correspondence of Mr. Jefferson, one. of 
which Avas written immediately before, and the other immediately 
after the decision of the question. 

'" Four daj^s of balloting have produced not a single change of a 
vote. Yet it is confidently believed by most that to-morrow there 
is to be a coalition. I know of no foundation for this belief How- 
ever, as Mr. Tyler waits the event of it, he will communicate it to 
you. If they could have been permitted to pass a law for putting 
the government into the hands of an officer, they would certainly 
have prevented an election. But we thought it best to declare open- 
ly and firmly, one and all, that the day such an act passed, the mid- 
dle States would arm, and tl.t.at no such usurpation, even for a sin- 
gle day, should be submitted to. This first shook them ; and they 
Avere completely alarmed at the resource for which we declared, to 
wit, a convention to re-organize the government, and to amend it. 
The very word convention gives them the horrors, as in the pre- 
sent democratical spirit of America, they fear they should lose some 
of the favorite morsels of the constitution. Many attempts have 
been made to obtain terms and promises from me. • 1 have declar- 
ed to them unequivocally, that I would not receive the.^overninenL 
on capitulation, that I would not go into it Avith my nands lied. 
Should they yield the election, I have reason to expect in the outset 
the greatest difficulties as to nominations. The late incumbents 
running away from their offices and leaving them vacant, Avili pre- 
vent my filling them Avithout the jjrevious advice of Senate. Hoav 
this diflticulty is to be got over I know not." 

" The minority of the House of Representatives, after seeing the 
impossibility of electing Burr, the certainty that a legislative usurpa- 
tion Avould be resisted by arms, and a recourse to a convention to re- 
organize and amend the government, held a considtationon this di- 
lemma, Avhetlier it Avould be better for them to come over in a body 
and go Avith the tide of the times, or by a negative conduct suffer the 
election to l^e made by* a bare majority, keeping their body entire 
and unbroken, to act in phalanx on such ground of opposition as 
circumstances shall offer : and I know their determination on this 
question only by their vote of yesterday. Morris of Vermont Avith- 



* Ana. 



396 LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

drew, which made Lyon's vote that of his State. The Maryland 
federahsts put in four blanks, whicli made the positive ticket of their 
colleagues 'the vote of the State. South Carolina and Delaware put 
in sixl)lanks. So there were ten states for one candidate, four for 
another, and two blanks. We consider this, therefore, as a declara- 
tion of war, on the part of this band. But their conduct appears to 
have brought over to us the whole body of federalists, who, being 
alarmed with the danger of a dissolution of the government, had 
l)een made most anxiously to wish the very administration they had 
opposed, and to view it when obtained, as a child of their own." 

During the long and doubtful struggle in the House of Represen- 
tatives, the public mind was in a state of feverish and agonizing 
suspense, throughout the country. The republicans were oppressed 
with dismay and gloom at the prospect before them ; v.hile the fed- 
eralists, who had every thing to gain, and nothing to lose by the 
event, were intoxicated with delight. But this unnatural order of 
thino"s was destined to be short-lived. Soon the scene was revers- 
ed. When the issue became known, one vmiversal sentiment of ex- 
ultation animated the great republican party of the Union. The 
intelligence Avas greeted with the thunder of artillery, and the peals 
of popular huzzas, in every city, town, and village on the continent. 
Reasonable men gave loose to the most extravagant demonstrations 
of joy.' When- the first moments of the enthusiasm had subsided, 
grave g,nd. systematic measures of public felicitation were every 
where put in motion. Orations, illuminations, processions, balls, 
banquets and toasts, characterized the occasion as the great republi- 
can jubilee of the American nation. The inspiring chorus* of 
" Jefferson and liberty," kindled on every patriot tongue, and rever- 
])erated from every mountain, through every, glen, from the Missis- 
sippi to the St. Lawrence. Innumerable addresses of congratulation, 
by individuals and pubhc bodies, poured in upon the newly elected 
President, rife with expressions of personal attachment, and of en- 
thusiastic devotion to republican principles. 

The federal dpiasty died hard. Like an Herculean victim, grap- 
pling with destiny, it expired with a terrible repetition of struggles. 
When the moment of dissolution approached, a last and desperate 



* Rejoice '. Columbia's sons, rejoice ! 

To tyrants never bend the knee, 
But join with heart, and soul and voice 

For Jeffersqn and Liberty. 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 



397 



rush was made to seize on all the offices of the government, whose 

tenure would make it difficult to dislodge them, particularly the Ju- ^ 

diciary. fdofin'ja^was nominated Chief Justice, in the room of Ells- ^.jSAP^^ 

worth, resigned ; Theophilus Parsons, Attorney General ; Harri- •. ^,. | 

sonG. Otis, District Attorney of Massachusetts ; James A. Bayard, .•./*'?\iif1ft,«/ 

Minister Plenipotentiary to France ; all of them chiefs of tlie repudi- \.^.^. . 

ated regenc)^, with a host of subordinate appointments, from the 

same political ranks. Finally, the celebrated ' ]>atch of midnight 

judges,' to the number of about twenty, wereenlrenched behind the , 

new limb of the judiciar}^ system, which was intended as a precious 

depository for the remains of federal power. These last acts of the 

expiring oligarchy, the object of which was, either to compel Mr. 

Jefferson to execute the government by federal aids and counsellors, 

or subject him to the odious operation of such m'.iltiplied removals as 

should bear him down, proved as impohtic and suicidal, in the end, 

as they were embarrassing to the new administration. They w^ere 

extreme^ grating to public sentiment, and revolted a numerous 

body of the federalists from their impassioned leaders. 

The following letters of Mr. Jefferson, written in the course t?.f the 
first tvro months after his election, develope in his usual felicitous 
manner, the state of political panies at that memorable period, as 
Vv'ell as the general principles of policy, on which he designed to ■ 
conduct the administration of the goyernment. Some of them were 
in answer to the gratulatory addresses of his ancient and venerated 
co-adjutors of the Revolution, and they derive additional interest 
from that circumstance. 

To J. Dickinson. — " No pleasure can exceed that which I re- 
ceived from reading your letter of the 21st ultimo. It was hke the 
joy we expect in the mansions of (he blessed, when received with 
the emljraces of our forefathers, we shall be welcomed with their 
blessing as having done our part not unworthily of them. The 
storm through which we have passed, has been tremendous indeed. 
The tough sides of our Argosie have been thoroughly tried. Her 
strength has stood the waves into Avhich she was steered, with a 
view to sink her. We shall put her on her republican tack, and she 
will now show by the beauty of her motion the skill of her builders. 
Figure apart, our fellow-citizens have been led hood-winked from 
their principles by a most extraordinary combination of circumstan- 
ces. But the band is removed, arr 1 they now see for themselves. 
I hope to see shortly a perfect consolidation, to effect which, nothing 
shall l^e spared on my part, short of the abandonment of the princir 



398 



LIFE, AVRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 



pies of our revolution. A just and solid republican government 
maintained here, will be a standing monument and example for the 
aim and imitation of the jicople of other countries ; and I join with 
you in the hope and l)elief that thej^ will see, from our example, that 
a free government is of all others the most energetic ; that the in- 
quiry which has been excited among the mass of mankind by our 
revolution and its consequences, will ameliorate the condition of 
man over a great portion of the globe. What a satisfaction have 
we in the contemplation of the benevolent effects of our eiibrts, com- 
pared with tho^;e of the leaders on the other side, who have discoun- 
tenanced all advances in science as dangerous innovations, liave 
endeavored to render philosophy and republicanism terms of re- 
proach, to persuade us that man cannot be governed but l^y the rod, 
&.C. I shall have the happiness of living and dying in' the contrary 
hope." 

To S. Adams. — " I addressed a letter to you, my very dear and 
ancient friend, on the 4t]i of March : not indeed to you by name, 
but through the medium of some of my fellow-citizens, whom occa- 
sion called on me to address. In meditating the matter of that ad- 
dress, I often aslied myself. Is this exactly in the spirit of the patri- 
arch, Samuel Adams ') Is it as he would express it 7 Will he ap- 
prove of it ? I have felt a great deal for our country in the times we 
liave seen. But individually for no one so much as yourself. When 
I have been told that you were avoided, insulted, frowned on, I could 
ixil ejaculate, ' Father, forgive them, for they know not what they 
do.' I confess I felt an indignation for you, which for myself I have 
l)een able, under every trial, to keep entirely passive. However, the 
storm is over, and- we are in port. The ship was not rigged for the 
service she was put on. We will show the smoothness of her mo- 
tions on her republican tack. I hope we shall once more see har- 
mony restored among our citizens, and an entire oblivion of, past 
feuds. Some of the leaders, who have most committed themselves, 
cannot come into this. But I hope the great body of our fellow-cit- 
izens will do it. I will sacrifice every thing but principle lo procure 
it. A few examples of justice on officers avIio have perverted their 
functions to the oppression of their fellow-citizens, must, in justice to 
those citizens, be made. But opinion, and the just maintenance of 
it, shall never be a crime in my view ; nor bring injury on the indi- 
vidual. Those whose misconduct in office ought to have produced 
their removal even by my predecessor, must not be protected by the 
delicacy due only to honest men. How much I lament that time 
has deprived me of your aid. It would have been a day of glory 
which should have called you to the first office of the administra- 
tion. But give us your counsel, my friend, and give us your bles- 
sing : and be assured that there exists not in the heart of man a 
more faiihful esteem than mine to you, and that I shall ever bear 
you the most affectionate veneration and respect." 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 399 

To R. R. Livingston. — '• The constitution, to which we are all 
attached, was meant to be republican, and we beheve to be republi- 
can according to every candid interpretation. Yet we have seen it 
so interpreted and administered, as to be truly what the French 
have called it, a monarchle masque. Yet so long has the vessel 
run on this way and been trimmed to it, that to put her on her re- 
publican tack will require all the skill, the firmness, and the zeal of 
her alilest and best friends. It is a crisis which calls on them to sac- 
rifice all other objects, and repair to her aid in this momentous oper- 
ation. Not only their skill is wanting, but their names also. It is 
essential to assemble in the outset persons to compose our adminis- 
tration, whose talents, integrity, and revolutionary name and princi- 
ples may inspire the nation, at once, witli unbounded confidence, 
and impose an awful silence on all the maligners of republicanism ; 
as may suppress in embryo the purpose avowed by one of their most 
daring and eflective chiefs, of beating down the administration. 
These names do not abovmd at this day. So few are they, that 
yours, my friend, cannot be spared among them without leaving a 
blank which cannot be filled. If I can obtain for the pubUc the aid 
of those I have contemplated, I fear nothing. If this cannot be done, 
then are Ave unfortunate indeed ! We shall be unable to realize 
the prospects which have been held out to the people, and we must 
fall back into monarchism, for want of heads, not hands, to help us 
out of it. This is a common cause, my dear Sir, common to all re- 
publicans. Though I have been too honorably placed in front of 
those who are to enter the breach so happily made, yet the energies 
of every individual are necessary, and in the very place where his 
energies can most serve the enterprise. I can assure you that your 
colleagues will be most acceptable to you ; one of them, whom you 
cannot' mistake, peculiarly so. The part which circumstances con- 
strain us to piopose to you, is the secretaryship of the navy. These 
circumstances cannot be explained by letter. Republicanism is so 
rare in those parts which possess nautical skill, that I cannot find it 
allied there to the other qualifications. Though you are not nauti- 
cal by profession, yet your residence and your mechanical science 
qualify you as well as a gentleman can possibly be, and sufficiently 
to enable you to choose under agents perfectly c[ualified, and to su- 
perintend their conduct. Come forward then, my dear Sir, and 
give us the aid of your talents and the weight of your character to- 
wards the new establishment of republicanism ; I say, for its new 
establishment ; for hitherto, we have seen only its travestie." 

To Gov. M'Kean. — " I have to acknowledge the receipt of your 
favor of February the 20th, and to thank you for your congratulations 
on the event of the election. Had it terminated in the elevation of 
Mr. Burr, every republican would, I am sure, have acquiesced in a 
moment ; because, however it might have been variant from the 



400 LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

intentions of the voters, yet it would have been agreeal)le to the con- 
stitution. No man would more cheerfully have submitted than 
myself, because I am sure the administration would have been re- 
publican, and the chair of the Senate permitting me to be at home 
eight months in the year, would, on that account, have been much 
more consonant to my real satisfaction. But in the event of an usvu'- 
pation, I was decidedly with those who were determined not to per- 
mit it. Because that precedent, once set, w^ould be artificially re- 
produced, and end soon in a dictator. Virginia was bristling tip, I 
believe." 

To Doctor Priestly. — " I learned some time ago that you 
were in Philadelphia, but that it was only for a fortnight ; and I 
supposed you were gone. It was not till yesterday T received in- 
formation that you Vvcre still there, had been very ill, but were on 
the recovery. I sincerely rejoice that you are so. Yours is one of 
the few lives precious to mankind, and for the continuance of which 
every thinking man is solicitous. Bigots may be an exception. 
What an effort, my dear Sir, of bigotry in politics and religion have 
we gone through. The Ijarbarians really flattered themselves they 
shoidd be able to bring back the times of Vandalism, when ignor- 
ance put every thing into the hands of power and priestcraft. All 
advances in science were proscribed as innovations. They pretend- 
ed to praise and encourage education, but it was to be the education 
of our ancestors. We were to look backwards not forwards for im- 
provement : the President himself declaring in one of his answers 
to addresses, that we were never to expect to go beyond them in re- 
al science. This was the real ground of all the attacks on you : 
those who live by mystery and charlaianerie^ fearing you would 
render them useless by simplifying the Christian philosophy, the 
most sublime and benevolent but most perverted system that ever 
shone on man, endeavored to crush your well earned and well de- 
served fame. But it was the LiUiputians upon Gulliver. Our 
countrymen have recovered from the alarm into which art and in- 
dustry had thrown them ; science and honesty are replaced on their 
high ground ; and you, my dear Sir, as their great apostle, are on 
its pinnacle. It is with heartfelt satisfaction that, in the first mo- 
ments of my public action, I can hail}^ou with welcome to our land, 
tender to you the homage of its respect and esteem, cover you under 
the protection of those lav.'s which were made for the wise and good 
like you, and disclaim the legitimacy of that libel on legislation, 
v^^hich under the form of a law [alien law,] was for some time pla- 
ced among them. 

" As the storm is nov/ subsiding and the horizon becoming serene, 
it is pleasant to consider the phenomenon with attention. Wc can 
no longer sa}^ there is noticing new under the sun. For the whole 
chapter in this history of man is new. The great extent of our re- 



OF THOMAS JEFFKRSON. 4(Jl 

public is new. Its sparse habitation is new. Tiie mighty wave of 
public opinion which has rolled over it is new. But the most pleas- 
ing novelty is, its so quietly subsiding over such an extent of sur- 
face to its true level again. The order and good sense displayed in 
this recovery from delusion, and in the momentous crisis which late- 
ly arose, really bespeak a strength of character in our nation whicli 
augurs well for the duration of our republic : and T am much better 
satisfied now of its stability, than I was before it was tried. I have 
been above all things solaced by the prospect which opened on us, 
in the event of a non-election of a President ; in which case, the 
federal government would have been in the situation of a clock or 
watch rundown. There was no idea of force, nor of any occasion 
for it. A convention, invited by the republican members of Con- 
gress with the virtual President and Vice-President, would have 
been on the ground in eight weeks, would have repaired the consti- 
tution where it was defective, and wound it up again. This peace- 
able and legitimate resource, to which we are in the habit of implicit 
obedience, superseding all appeal to force, and being always within 
our reach, shows a precious principle of self-preservation in our com- 
position, till a change of circumstances shall take place, which in 
not within prospect p.t any definite period." 

To M. Robinson. — " I have to acknowledge the receipt of your 
favor of the 3d instant, and to thank ycu for the friendly express- 
ions it contains. I entertain real hope that the whole body of your 
fellow citizens (many of whom had been carried away by the X. Y. 
Z. business) will shortly be consolidated in the same sentiments. 
When they examine the real principles of both parties, I think they 
will find httle to differ about. I know, indeed, that there are some 
of their leaders who have so committed themselves, that pride, if no 
other passion, will prevent their coalescing. We must be easy with 
them. The Eastern States will be the last to come over on account 
of the dominion of the clergy, who had got a smell of union between 
(Church and State, and began to indulge reveries which can never 
be realized in the present state of science. If, indeed, the)'^ could 
have prevailed on us to view all advances in science as dangerous 
innovations, and to look back to the opinions and practices of our 
forefathers, instead of looking forward, for improvement, a promising 
groundwork would have been laid. But I am in hopes their good 
sense will dictate to them, that since the mountain will not come to 
them, they had better go to the mountain : that they will find their 
interest in acquiescing in the liberty and science of their country, 
and that the Christian religion, when divested of the rags in which 
they have enveloped it, and brought to the original purity and sim- 
plicity of its benevolent institutor, is a religion of all others most 
friendly to hberty, science, and the freest expansion of the human 
mind." 

35 



402 LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

To E. Gerry. — " What with the natural current of opmioii 
which lias been setting over to us Cor eighteen month:::, and the im- 
mense impetus which was given ii from the 11th to tlie 17 th of Feb- 
ruary, we may now say tliat the United States, from New York 
southwardly, are as unanimous in the principles of '7G, as they were 
in '76. The only difference is, that the leaders who remain behind 
are more numerous and colder than the aposdes of toryism in '76. 
The reason is, that we are now justly more tolerant than we could 
safely have been then, circumstanced as we were. Your part of the 
Union, though as absolutely republican as ours, had drunk deeper of 
the delusion, and is therefore slower in recovering from it. The 
ffigis of government, and the temples of religion and of justice, have 
all been prostituted there to toll us back to the times when we burnt 
witches. But your people will rise again. They will av.'ake like 
Samson from his sleep, and carry away the gates and the posts of 
the city. You, my friend, are destined to rally them again under 
tiieir former banners, and when called to the post, exercise it with 
firmness and with intlexible adherence to your own principles. The 
people will support you, notwithstanding the bowlings of the raven- 
ous crew from whose jaws they are escaping. It will be a great 
blessing to our country if we can once more restore harmony and 
social love among its citizens. I confess, as to myself, it is almost 
the first object of my heart, and one to which I would sacrifice ev- 
ery thing but principle. With the people I have hopes of effecting 
it. But their Coryphtei are incuraliles. I expect little from them. 

•• I was not deluded by the eulogiums of the public papers in the 
arst moments of change. If they could have continued to get all 
the loaves and fishes, that is, if I would have gone over to them, 
lliey would continue to eulogize. But I well knew that the mo- 
ment that such removals should take place, as the justice of the [)re- 
ceding administration ought to have executed, their hue and cry 
would be set up, and they would take their old stand. I shall disre- 
gard tliat also. Mr. Adam's last appointments, when he knew he 
was naming counsellors and aids for me and not for himself, I set 
aside as far as depends on me. Officers who have been guilty of 
gross abuses of office, such as marshals packing juries, &c., I shall 
now remove, as my predecessor ought in justice to have done. The 
instances will be few, and governed by strict rule, and not party pas- 
sion. The right of opinion shall suffer no invasion from me. Those 
Vv^ho have acted well, have nothing to fear, however they may have 
differed from me in opinion : those who have done ill, however, 
have nothing to hope ; nor shall I fail to do justice lest it should be 
ascribed to that difference of opinion. A coalition of sentiments is 
not for the interest of the printers. They, Uke the clergy, live by 
the zeal they can kindle, and the schisms they can create. It is 
contest of opinion in politics as vv^ell as religion Avhich makes us take 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 



403 



great interest in them, and bestow our money li'berally on those who 
furnish ahment to our appetite. The mild and simple principles ot 
the Christian philosophy would produce too much calm, too much 
regularity of good, to extract from its disciples a support for a numer- 
ous priesliiood, were they not to sophisticate it, raniify it, split it into 
hairs, and twist its texts till they cover the divine morahty of its au- 
thor with mysteries, an^ require a priesthood to explain them."' 



CHAPTER Xill. 

The fourth of March, 1801, was a proud day to America. The 
fust democratic President was inducted into office, with no other in- 
dications of solemnity, than the distant but overflowing tribute of 
millions of grateful hearts. The crowd of repul^iican strangers who 
had thronged the city during the previous period of anxiety and 
agitation, had disappeared, on the understanding that it was the 
pleasure of the President to be made the subject of no homage or 
ceremony ; and the vanc}inshed party, of course, had no inclination 
to witness the consummation of a triumph, in which they could on- 
\y participate w^ith regret. The city of Washington had been occu- 
pied, as the seat of government, but a few months only ; the number 
of its inhabitants, at this time, did not exceed that of a small village : 
the individuals composing the late administration had taken their 
.flight, with the ex-President, early on the foiuth of March ; ami 
now, divested of half its migratory population, the infant metropolis 
presented a solitary appearance. The wonderful simplicity of the 
scene and ceremony of the inauguration, is beautifully described by 
the Washington reminiscent, whom we have before quoted :— 
" The sun shone bright on that morning. The Senate was con- 
vened. Those members of the republican party that remained at 
the seat of government, the Judges of the Supreme Court, some citi- 
zens and gentry from the neighboring country, and about a dozen 
ladies made up the assembly in the Senate chamber, who were col- 
lected to witness the ceremony of the President's inaviguration. Mr. 
Jefferson had not yet arrived. He was seen walking from his lodg- 
ings, which were not far distant, attended by five or six gentlemen, 
who were his fellow lodgers. Soon afterwards he entered, accom- 



■104 



LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 



panied by a committee of the Senate, and bowing to the Senate, who 
arose to receive him, he approached a table on which the Bible lay 
and took the oath which was administered to him by the Chief Jus- 
tice. He was then conducted, by the President of the Senate, to 
his chair, which stood on a platform raised some steps above the 
floor ; after the pause of a moment or two he arose and delivered 
that beautiful inaugural address which has since become so popular 
and celebrated, with a clear, distinct voice, in a firm and modest 
manner. — On leaving the chair he was surrounded by friends who 
pressed forward with cordial and eager congiatulations, and some, 
though not many of the more magnanimous of his opponents, 
most of whom, however, silently left the chamber. The new 
President walked home with two or three of the gentlemen 
who lodged in the same house. At dinner he took his accus- 
tomed place at the bottom of the table, his nev»' station not elicit- 
ing from his democratic friends any new attention or courtesy. A 
gentleman from Baltimore, an invited guest, who accidentally sat 
next to him, asked permission to wish him joy, 'I would advise you' 
answered Mr. Jeflersou, smiling, ' to follow my example on nuptial 
occasions, when I always tell the bridegi'oom I will wait till the end 
of the year before offering my congratulations.' And this was tlic 
only and solitary instance of any notice taken of the event of the 
morning." 

The inaugural address of Mr. Jefferson was as novel and extra- 
ordinary, as the simplicity of the scene which ushered it ])efore the 
world. For condensation of ideas, and Addisonian purity of lan- 
guage, it is allowed to be superior to any thing in the wide circle of 
political composition. In the short compass in which it is compress- 
ed, all the essential principles of free governments are stated, in de- 
tail, with the measures best calculated for their attainment and se- 
curity, and an ample refutation of the adversary principles. Every 
word is pregnant witVi sentiment and reproof, and ever}'' sentence 
contains a text on w^iich might be written volimies of political wis- 
dom. After a modest exordium, in which the author lamented the 
inadequacy of his abilities to the jnagnitude of the charge, and 
expressed his reliance for guidance and support, on the co-ordinate 
functionaries of the government by whom he was surrounded, the 
address proceeds in the following terms : 



of' THOMAS JEFFERSON. 405 

•■ Dining the contest of opinion through which we have past, the 
animation of discussions and of exertions, has sometimes worn an 
aspect which might impose on strangers unused to think freely, 
and to speak and to write what they thiulv ; but this being now 
decided by the voice of the nation, announced according to the 
rules of the constitution, all will of course arrange themselves un- 
der the will of the law, and unite in common efforts for the common 
good. All too will bear in mind this sacred principle, that though 
the will of the majority is in all cases to prevail, that will, to be 
rightful, must be reasonable ; that the minority possess their equal 
rights, which equal laws must protect, and to violate would be op- 
pression. Let us then, fellow citizens, unite with one heart and 
one mind, let us restore to social intercourse that harmony and 
affection without which liberty, and even life itself, are but dreary 
things. And let us reflect tiiat having banished from our land tiiat 
religious intolerance under which mankind so long bled and sufi'er- 
ed, we have yet gained little, if we countenance a political intoler- 
ance, as despotic, as wicked, and capable of as bitter and bloody 
persecutions. During the throes and convulsions of the ancient 
world, during the agonizing spasms of infuriated man, seeking 
through blood and slaughter, his long lost liberty, it was not won- 
derful, that the agitation of the billows should reach even this dis- 
tant and peaceful shore ; that this should be more felt and feared 
by some, and less by others ; and should divide opinions, as to 
measures of safety. "But every difference of opinion is not a differ- 
ence of principle. We have called by different names, brethren of 
the same principle. We are all Republicans : we are all Federal- 
ists. If there be any among us, who would wish to dissolve this 
Union, or to change its republican form, let them stand undisturb- 
ed as monuments of the safety, with which error of opinion may 
be tolerated, w^iere reason is left free to combat it. 1 know indeed, 
that some honest men fear, that a republican government cannot 
be strong ; that this government is not strong enough. But would 
the honest patriot, in the full tide of successful experiment, aban- 
don a government, which has so far kept us free and firm, on the 
theoretic and visionary fear, that this government, the Avorid's best 
hope, may, by possibility, want energy to preserve itself ? I trust 
not. I believe this, on the contrary, the strongest government on 
earth. I believe it the only one, where every man, at the call of 
the law, would fly to the standard of the law, and would meet in- 
vasions of the public order, as his own personal concern. Some- 
times it is said that man cannot be trusted with the government of 
himself. Can he then be trusted with the government of others ? 
Or have we found angels in the form of kings, to govern him ? 
Let history answer this question. 

" Let us then with courage and confidence, pursue our own fed- 
eral and republican principles ; our attachment to union and repre- 

35* 



406 LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

senlative government. Kindly separated by nature and a wide 
ocean from the exterminating- havoc of one quarter of the globe : 
too high minded to endure the degradation^^ of the others, possessing 
a chosen country, with room enough for our descendants to the 
tiiousandth and thousandth generation, entertaining a due sense of 
our equal right to the use of our own faculties, to the acquisitions 
of our own industry, to honor and confidence from our fellow citi- 
zens, resulting not from birth, but from our actions and their sense 
of them, enlightened by a benign religion, professed indeed and 
[)racticed in various forms, yet all of them inculcating honest)^, 
truth, temperance, gratitude and the love of man, acknowledg- 
ing and adoring an overruling Providence, which by all its dispen- 
sations proves that it delights in the happiness of man here, and 
his greater happiness hereafter ; with all these blessings, what is 
more necessary to make us a happy and prosperous people ? Still 
one thing more fellow-citizens, a wise and frugal government, which 
shall restrain men from injuring one another, shall leave them oth- 
erwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improve- 
ment, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has 
earned. This is the sum of good government ; and this is neces- 
sary to"close the circle of our felicities. 

" About to enter, fellow citizens, on the, exercise of ditties, which 
comprehend every thing dear and valuable to you, it is proper you 
siiould understand what I deem the essential principles of our gov- 
ernment, and consequently, those, which oug\it to shape its admin- 
istration. I will compress them within the narrowest compass they 
will bear, stating the general principle, but not all its limitations.^ — 
Equal and exact justice to all men, of whatever stateor persuasion, re- 
ligious or political : — peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all 
nations, entangling alliances with none : — the support of the State 
governments in all their rights, as the most competent administrations 
for our domestic concerns, and the surest bulwarks against anti-repub- 
lican tendencies : — the preservation of the general government in its 
whole constitutional vigor, as the sheet anchor of our peace at home, 
and safety abroad : — a jealous care of the right of election by the 
people, a mild and safe corrective of abuses which are lopped by 
the sword of revolution where peaceable remedies are unprovided: — 
absolute acquiescence in the decisions of the majority, the vital prin- 
ciple, of republics, from which there is no appeal but to force, the 
vital principle and immediate parent of despotism ; a well disciplin- 
ed militia, our best reliance in peace, and for the first moments of 
war, till regulars may reUeve them : the supremacy of the civil over 
the miUtary authority : — economy in tiie public expense, that labor 
may be lightly burdened : — the honest payment of our debts and 
sacred preservation of the public faith : encouragement of agricul- 
ture, and of commerce as its handmaid; the diffusion of informa- 
tion, and arraignment of all aljuses at the bar of the public reason : 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSO>r. 407 

■ — freedom of religion ; freedom of the press : and freedom of per- 
son, under the protection of the habeas corpus : and trial by juries 
impartially selected. These priiiciples form the bright constella- 
tion, which has gone before us, and guided our steps through an 
age of revolution and reformation. The wisdom of our sages, and 
l)lood of our heroes, have been devoted to their attainment : they 
should be the creed of our political faith, the text of civic in- 
struction, the touchstone, by which to try the services of those we 
trust ; and should we wander from them in moments of error or of 
alarm, let us hasten to retrace our steps, and to regain the road 
which alone leads to peace, hberty and safety. 

" I repair then, fellow citizens, to the post you have assigned me. 
With experience enough in subordinate offices to have seen the dif- 
ficulties of this the greatest of all, I have learnt to expect that it will 
rarely fall to the lot of imperfect man to retire from this station with 
the reputation, and the favor, which bring him into it. Without 
pretensions to that high confidence you reposed in oiu' first and 
greatest revolutionary character, wliose pre-eminent services had en- 
titled him to the first place in his country's love, and destined for 
him the fairest page in the volume of faithful history, I ask so much 
confidence only as may give firmness and efi'ect to the legal admin- 
istration of your atfairs. I shall often go wrong through defect of 
judgment. When right I shall often be thought wrong by those 
whose positions will not command a view of the whole ground. 1 
ask your indulgence for my own errors which Avill never be inten- 
tional ; and your support against the errors of others, who may con- 
demn what they would not, if seen in all its parts. The approba- 
tion implied by your suffrage, is a great consolation to me for the 
past ; and my future solicitude will be, to retain the good opinion of 
those who have bestowed it in advance, to conciliate that of others 
by doing them all the good in my power, and to be instrumental to 
the happiness and freedom of all. 

" Relying then on the patronage of your good will, I advance 
with obedience to the work, ready to retire from it whenever you 
become sensible how much better choices it is in your power to 
make. And may that infinite Power which rules the destinies of 
the universe, lead our councils to what is best, and give them a 
favorable 'issue for your peace and prosperity." 

The above Inaugural of the President was not intended as an 
ostentatious display of his political sentiments. Every principle ad- 
vanced in it was subsequently reduced to practice, which made his 
administration the model of every succeeding one, and the admiration 
of the world. 

In the selection of his Cabinet Ministers, Mr. Jefferson was 
guided by a preference for those tried spirits, who, to talents and 
integrity united an undeviating adherence to ancient revolution- 



40S LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

ary principles. The concurieiice of tiiese two pie-vequisites was 
deemed eri^ential to enable him to carry into effect tlie system of 
radical reformation, which he proposed for the good of the nation. 
"SYith a view to inspire unbounded confidence in liis friends, and 
' to impose an awful silence on the maligners of republicanism,' he 
assembled around him an array of characters, whose ' principles had 
been tested in the crucible of time.' James Madison Avas appoint- 
ed Secretary of State ; Albert Gallatin, Secretary of the Treasury ; 
General Dearborn, Secretary of War ; Robert Smith, Secretary of 
the Navy ; and Levi Lincoln, Attorney General. Agreeably to 
the example voluntarily set by himself, the Vice President was not 
invited to ■ take any part in the executive consultations. He ad- 
dressed a Circular to the Heads of Departments establishing the 
mode and degree of communication between them and the Presi- 
dent. All letters of business addressed to himself, v\^ere referred by 
him to the proper department to be acted upon. Those addressed 
to the Secretaries, with those referred to them, were all communi- 
cated to the President, whether an answer was required or not ; in 
the latter case, simply for his information. If an answer was re- 
quisite, the Secretary of the department communicated the letter and 
his proposed ausv.'er. If approved, they were simply sent back after 
perusal ; if not, they were returned with an informal note, suggest- 
inf an alteration or query. If any doubt of importance arose, he 
reserved it for conference. By this means, he was in constant and 
accurate possession of all facts and proceedings in every part of the 
Union ; his eye pervaded every part of the administration ; he form- 
ed a central point for the different branches, preserved an unity of 
object and action among them, exercised that participation in the 
' gestion of affairs' which his office made incumbent on him, and 
drew upon himself the responsibility of every executive transaction. 
At the threshold of his administration, Mr. Jefferson w^as met by 
difficulties which called into requisition all the firmness of his (char- 
acter. He found all the principal offices of the government, and 
most of the subordinate ones, in the hands of his political enemies. 
This state of things was as embarrassing to himself, as offensive to 
the repubhcan body of his fellow citizens ; and demanded prompter 
correctives than the tardy effects of death and resignation. On him, 
therefore, for the first time, devolved the disagreeable enterprize of 
an Augean purification. To have removed one half of the federal 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 



409 



oflicerr!, and placed republicans iu their stead, would have been rig- 
orous justic' when it was known that the latter composed the great 
majority of the people. But he carried real moderation into the 
performance of this duty. He restrained it to the ultimate point of 
forbearance, which was compatilVic with dissipating the monopoly of 
trust and influence, in the hands of the minority, and producing an 
etjuitable distribution only among the majority. The general prin- 
ciples of action which he sketched for his guide, were the follov>'ing: 
1st, All appointments to civil office, during pleasure, made after 
the event of the election was certainly knov.'n to Mr. Adams, were 
considered as nullities. He did not viev>' the persons appointed as 
even candidates for the office, but replaced others witliout noticing' 
or notifying them. 2d, Officers who had been guilty of ojjlckd mal- 
conduct were proper subjects of removal. 3d, Good men, to whom 
there was no objection but a difference of political principle, practis- 
ed on so far only as the right of a private citizen woidd justify, were 
not proper subjects of removal, except in the case of attorneys and 
marshals. The courts being so decidedly federal and irremovable, 
it was thought that those offices, being the doors of entrance, should 
be exercised by republican citizens, as a shield to the republican ma- 
jority of the nation. 4tli, Incumbents who had prostituted their 
offices to the oppression of their fellow citizens, ought, in justice to 
those citizens, to be removed, and as exatjiples to deter others from 
like abuses. To these means of introducing repubhcans to a just 
co-operation in the transaction of the public business, was added one 
other in the course of his administration, to wit, removal for election- 
eering activity, or open and industrious opposition to the principles oi 
the government. " Every officer of the government,"' said he, "may 
vote at elections according to his own conscience : but we should 
betray the cause committed to our care, were we to permit the influ- 
ence of official patronage to be used to overthrow that cause." In 
all new appointments, the President confined his choice to rcpubli- 
cims, or republican federalists. Although conciliation and an oblit- 
eration of past divisions, was the cordial desire of his heart, he firm- 
ly resisted the counsels of those who advised the bestowmcnt of of- 
fice on the ' Coryphaei' of the federal party, in order to reconcile. 
Such a course, he considered as involving, in the end, a certain sac- 
rifice of principle. Even amiable and honorable monarchists were 
not, in his opinion, safe subjects of republican confidence. 'While 



410 LIFE, WRITINGS. AND OPINIONS 

we will associate with us in affairs,' he vv rote to Governor Lincoln, 
' the federal sect of republicans, to a certain degree, we must strip of 
all the means of influence thp EssSx junto, and their associate mon- 
ocrats in every part of the Union. The former differ from us only 
in tiie shades of power to be given to the Executive, being, with us, 
attached to republican government. The latter wish to sap the re- 
public by fraud, if they cannot destroy it by force, and to erect an 
English monarchy in its place ; some of them, (as Mr. Adams) think- 
ing its corrupt pans should be cleansed away, others, (as Hamilton) 
that would make it an impracticable machine. I do not know that 
the regeneration of otricers will be pushed farther than was settled 
before 3^ou left us, except as to Essex men.' 

The first experiments in this department of reformation, excited 
a tremendous clamor against the President. Those who have wit- 
nessed the wrath, and vociferous lamentation of the press, on a recent 
displity of the same firm t)olicy, may form a tolerable conception of 
tlie angry temper and lachrymal effusions of the opposition, on the 
subject of executive displacements in 1801. The spirit of New 
England was the sharpest and most unaccomodating.* The Legis- 
lature of Connecticut, in the spring of 1801, made a general sweep 
of republicans from the State offices. " We must meet them," 
said the President, " with eciual intolerance. When they will give 
a share in the State offices, they shall be replaced in a share of the 
General offices. Till then we must follow their example. I am 
sincerely sorr}^ to see the inflexibility of the federal spii'it tlrere, for 
I cannot believe they are all monarchists P'\ 

The temper of the Eastern governments Vv'as viperous indeed. 
The outcry of the Gazettes was vehement and inflammatory. By 
a strange confusion of calumny, the President was alternately stig- 

* The following short paragrapli, extracted from an Oration delivered at New 
Haven, Ct. before the State Society of Cincinnati, ou the 7th of July, liiOl, by 
Theodore Dwight, presents a true picture of tlie temper of the opposition east 
of the Hudson. 

" We liave now reached the consummation of Democratic blessedness. Wo 
liave a country governed hy blockheads and knaves ; tlie ties of marriage with 
all its felicities aie severed and destroyed ; our wives and daughters are thrown 
into tlie stews ; our children are cast into the world from the breast forgotten ; 
filial piety is extinguished, and our sir names, the only mark of distinction 
among families, are abolished. Can the imagination paint any thing more 
dreadful this side hell.' Some parts of the subject are indeed fit only for hor- 
rid contemplation." 

t Letter to Levi Lincoln, July, 1801. 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 411 

niatized as a tyrant and a tool ; and by an obliquity of construction 
equally perverse, his Inaugural Address was tortured into a weapon 
against himself, by making it contain pledges and assurances, which 
his daily conduct was represented as violating. Some occasion of 
public explanation seemed d-esirable to the President, to obviate the 
grossness of this attack, as well as to tranquilize the republicans un- 
der it, who, groaning under the oppressions of the federal ascen- 
dencies at home, began to be appalled wnth the apprehension that 
an impression would be made, and their rights inadequately coun- 
tei -protected by the General Government. Such an occafeion was 
soon offered. The removal of Mr. Goodrich from the collectorship 
of New-Haven, who had been commissioned in the last moments of 
the late administration, and the substitution of Samuel Bishop in 
his room, produced a bitter remonstrance from the merchants of that 
city. The President, in his answ^er, improved the opportunity to 
silence the discontents of either party, by uniting to an ample jus- 
tification of his policy, and a declared determination to pursue it, an 
aw^ful refutation of the clamors of the opposition. After demonstra- 
ting the futility of the objections against Mr. Bishop, by an array of 
public and private evidences in his favor, this celebrated paper con- 
cludes as follows : 

" The removal, as it is called, of Mr. Goodrich, forms another sub- 
ject of comprint. Declarations by myself in favor o( political tol- 
erance, exhortations to harmony and affection in social intercourse, 
and to respect for the equal rights of the minority, have, on certain 
occasions, been quoted and misconstrued into assurances that the 
tenure of offices was to be undisturbed. But could candor apply 
such a construction? It is not indeed in the remonstrance thatw^e 
find it ; but it leads to the explanations which that calls for. 
When it is considered, that during the late administration, those 
who were not of a particular sect of politics Avere excluded from all 
office ; when, by a steady pursuit of this meaeure, nearly the whole 
offices of the United States were monopolized by that sect : when 
the public sentiment at length declared itself, and burst open the 
doors of honor and confidence to those whose opinions they more 
approved ; was it to be imagined that this monopoly of office w^as 
still to be continued in the hands of the minority ? Does it violate 
their equal rights, to assert some rights in the majority also ? Is 
it political intoleranceio claim a proportionate share in the diroc- 
tion of the public affairs? Can they not harmonize in society un- 
less they have every thing in their own hands ? If the will of the 
nation, manifested by their various elections, calls for an adminis- 



\ 



412 LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

tration of oroveinment according with the opinions of those elected ; 
if, for the fulfihnent of that will, displacements are necessary, with 
whom can they so justly begin as with persons appointed in the 
last moments of an administration-, not for its own aid, but to begin 
a career at the same time with their successors, by whom they had 
never l)een approved, and who could scarcely expect from them a 
cordial co-operation? Mr. Goodrich was one of these. Was it 
proper for him to place himself in office, without knowing whether 
those whose agent he w^as to be, would have confidence in his agen- 
cy ? Can the preference of another as the successor to Mr. Austin, 
be candidly called a removal of Mr. Goodrich ? If a due participa- 
tion of office is a matter of right, how are vacancies to be obtained? 
Those by death are few ; by resignation none. Can iinj other 
mode than that of removal be proposed? This is a painful office. 
But it is made my duty, and I meet it as such. I proceed in the op- 
eration with deliberation and inciuiry, that it may injure the best 
men least, and effect the purposes of justice and public utility with 
the least private distress ; that it may be thrown, as much as possi- 
ble, on delinquency, on oppression, on intolerance, on anti-revolu- 
tionary adherence to our enemies. 

"The remonstrance laments 'that a change in the administration 
must produce a change in the subordinate officers ;' in other words, 
that it should be deemed necessary for all officers to think with 
their principal ? But on wdiom does this imputation bear ? On 
those who have excluded from office every shade of opinion which 
was not theirs ? Or on those who have been so excluded ? I la- 
ment sincerely that unessential differences of opinion should ever 
have been deemed sufficient to interdict half the society from the 
rights and the blessings of self-government, to proscribe them as un- 
worthy of every trust. It would have been to me a circumstance 
of great relief, had I found a moderate participation of office in the 
hands of the majority. I would gladly have left to time and acci- 
dent to raise them to their just share. But their total exclusion calls 
for prompter corrections. I shall correct the procedure : but that 
done, return with joy to that state of things, when the only questions 
concerning a candidate shall be. Is he honest ? Is he capable ? Is 
he faithful to the constitution ?" 

The regeneration of the public offices Avas the first measure of 
importance which gave a character of originality to the administra- 
tion, Various other abuses existed, dependent on executive indul- 
gence, which soon called into action (he reformatory hand of the 
President. The demolition of these, in bold and rapid succession, 
gave a cheering and prophetic dawn to the republican revolution of 
government. In a letter of the President to Nathaniel Macon, 
member of Congress from North Carolina, in May, 1801, it is curious 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. Uo 

to notice the following laconic statement of the progress and fixod 
protestations of reform : 

" Levees are done away. 

'• The first communication to the next Congress will be, like all 
subsequent ones, by message, to which no answer will be expected. 

"The diplomatic establishment in Europe will be reduced to 
three ministers. 

" The compensations to collectors depend on you, and not on me. 

'• The army is undergoing a chaste reforaiation. 

" The navy will be reduced to the legal establishment by the last 
'of this month. 

" Agencies in every department will be revised. 

" We shall push you to the uttermost in economizing. 

" A very early reconnnendation had been given to the Post Mas- 
ter General to employ no printer, foreigner, or revolutionary tory in 
any of his offices. This department is still untouched. 

"The arrival of Mr. Gallatin, yesterday, completed the organiza- 
tion of our administration." 

During the short interval of time between the inauguration and 
the meeting of the first Congress, the attention of the President 
was industriously occupied in maturing and multiplying his plang 
for republicanizing the government ; and in carrying them into 
execution, in all cases where he possessed the power independently 
of the Legislature. The courtly custom of levees, with the train 
of attendant forms and ceremonies, had its origin with the govern- 
ment. General Washington resisted the importunities to introduce 
them, for three weeks after his induction into office. At last he 
yielded, and Colonel Humphreys, a gentleman of great parade, was 
charged with the arrangement of ceremonies on the first occasion. 
Accordingly an ante-chamber and presence-room were provided ; 
and when the company who were to pay their court, had assembled, 
the President advanced, preceded by Humphreys. After passing 
through the ante-chamber, the door of the inner room was thrown, 
open, and Humphreys entered first, calling out with a loud voice, 
• The President of the United States.' The President was so much 
disconcerted, that he never recovered from it during the whole time 
of the levee. After the company had retired, he said to Humphreys, 
' Well, you have taken me in once, but by -^ you shall never take 
me in a second time.' He never allowed the same form to be re- ^ 
peated, but had the company introduced as they entered the joom. ' 

36 



414 LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

where he stood to» receive them. Tlie levees were preserved in all 
their vigor under Mr. Adams. Repeated at short intervals, and 
accompanied, as they were, by a general course of sumptuous en- 
tertainment, they were unnecessarily expensive, demoralizing, and 
obstructive of business. Mr. Jefferson discontinued them. He had 
but two 2J«&//c days for the reception of company — the fourth of 
July and lirst of January. On these occasions, the doors of his 
house were thrown open, and the most liberal hospitality provided 
for the entertainment of visitors, of every grade and name in society, 
without exception or distinction. 

The abolishing the pompous mimicry of royal trappings, which 
' were familiarizing tKe spectator to the harbinger's of another form 
of government,' exerted a salutary influence upon the habits and 
manners of the Metropolis. The glitter and parade of aristocracy, 
the ribbons and garters of birth' and place, extravagance of dress, 
idleness and corruption of manners, dissipation of time, health and 
money, with all the paraphanalia of European courts and capitals, 
were swept away, and superseded by the dignified courtesies, the 
substantial virtues, and elevated simplicities of republicanism. 
From the federal centre, the rays of this moral renovation diverged 
in every direction, and exlended their benign and purifying influ- 
ence over the whole area of the republic. Many now living may 
recollect with what rapidity the whole foce of society was changed, 
and the vast tide of anti- republican tendencies, which for years had 
been setting in upon the country, rolled backward into the flood of 
ages that had passed away. 

So much for the deiuolition of forms. Pari passu with these, 
a system of substantial reformations was commenced and vigorous- 
ly prosecuted by the President. The introduction of economy in 
the public expenditures" was the cardinal principle of this system. 
To diminish the number and weight of public burthens, and estab- 
lish a frugal system of government, which 'should. not take from 
the mouth of labor the bread it had earned,' was the pride of the 
President's heart, and the pole star of his operations. To this end, 
the Army and Navy, which had been raised by his predecessor into 
heavy monarchical engines, under pretence of vrar, were lowered 
into easy, republican peace establishments ; or rather to the ulti- 
mate point of reduction, confided to executive discretion. Farther 
than this, he could not go without the concurrence of the Legisla- 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 



415 



ture. The amount of force, inckiding regulars and militia, which 
the several acts of the preceding administration had authorized the 
President to raise, was considerably over 100,000 men. This for- 
midable army, Mr. Jefferson reduced to four regiments of infantry, 
two regiments of artillerists and engineers, and two troops of light 
dragoons. The next year, by the consent of the Legislature, he 
reduced it to two regiments of infantry, one regiment of artillerists, 
and a corps of engineers, or about 3000 men. 

From the mihtary and marine, he advanced to the civil estab- 
lishment, and insinuated the purifying operation into every ramifi- 
cation of that. He visited in person each of the Departments, and 
obtained a catalogue of the officers employed in each, with a state- 
ment of their wages, and amount of duties. Those under his 
own immediate charge, were subjected to the same scrutiny. 
Thence he extended his enquires over the whole territory of the 
republic, and comprehended in the revision all those, who, under 
any species of public employment, drew money from the treasury. 
This done, he immediately commenced the reduction of all such 
offices as were deemed unnecessary, whose tenure depended on ex- 
ecutive discretion. The inspectors of the internal revenue were dis- 
continued in a mass. They comprised a large body of treasury 
men, dispersed over the country., useless, and even obstructive to 
the accountabihty of the internal finance. Various other agencies, 
created by executive authority, on salaries fixed by the same au- 
thoiity, were deemed superfluous. These were all suppressed. The 
diplomatic establishment vv'as reduced to three ministers, all that the 
public interests required — namely, to England, France, and Spain. 
He called in foreign ministers who had been absent eleven, and 
even seventeen years ; and established the rule which he had for- 
merly recommended to General Washington, by whom it was ap- 
proved — that no person should be continued on foreign mission 
beyond a term of six. seven, or eight years. A long absence from 
their country denationalized their principles and habits. They re- 
turned like foreigners, and, like them, required a considerable resi- 
dence here to become Americanized. But the great mass of the 
public offices, being established by law, required the concurrence of 
the Legislature to discontinue them. These, therefore, he reserved, 
to be communicated to Congress, for revision and reduction, in his 
first annual message. 



41G LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

From the internal administration, the President directed his at- 
tention to the department of foreign affairs; and manifested an ea- 
ger desire to extend the blessings of reform to all mankind. With 
this view, he formed the design of introducing some wholesome im- 
provements in the estabhshed code of international intercourse, by 
engaging in concurrence and peaceable co-operation, a coalition of 
the most liberal powers of Europe. These improvements respected 
the rights of neutral nations, and were original conceptions with 
himself and Dr. Franklin, as illustrated in a preceding chapter. 
He desired to see abolished universally the established law of na- 
tions, which authorized the taking the goods of an enemy from 
the ship of a friend ; and to have substituted in its place, by special 
L'ompacts, the more rational and convenient rule, that free ships 
should make free goods. The vexatious effects of the former prin- 
ciple upon neutral nations peaceably pursuing their commerce, and 
its tendency to embroil them with the powers involved in war. 
were sufficient reasons for its universal abandonment ; while the op- 
eration of the latter principle, leaving the nations at peace to enjoy 
unmolested and aloof from the belligerents, the common rights of 
the ocean, was more favorable to the interests of commerce, and 
lessened the occasions and vexations of war. Besides, the princi- 
ple of ' free bottoms free goods,' he contended, was the genuine 
dictate of national morality, and the converse, which had unfortu- 
nately obtained, a corruption, originally introduced by accident be- 
tween the States* which first figured on the water, and afterwards 
adopted, from the mere force of example, by the other nations, as 
they successively appeared upon the theatre of the ocean. 

The President desired to see this improvement so far carried out 
as to abolish the pernicious distinction of contraband of war, in the 
articles of neutral commerce. He regarded the practice of entering 
the ship of a friend to search and seize what was called contraband 
of war, as a violation of natural right, and extremely hable to abuse. 

" War Ijetween two nations" says he, '• cannot diminish the rights 
of the rest of the world remaining at peace. The doctrine that 
the rights of nations remaining quietly in the exercise of moral 
and social duties, are to give way to the convenience of those who 
prefer plundering and murdering one another, is a monstrous doc- 

* Venice and Genoa. 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 417 

trine ; and ought to yield to the more rational law, that ' the wrong 
which two nations endeavor to inflict on each other, must not in- 
fringe on the rights or conveniences of those remaining at peace.' 
And what is contraband^ by the law of nature 1 Either every thing 
which may aid or comfort an enemy, or nothing. Either all com- 
merce which would accommodate him is unlawful, or none is. 
The difference between articles of one or another description, is a 
difference in degree only. No line between them can be drawn. 
Either all intercourse must cease between neutrals and beUiger 
ents, or all be permitted. Can the world hesitate to say which 
shall be the rule ? Shall two nations turning tigers, break up \n 
one instant the peaceable relations of the whole world ? Reason 
and nature clearly pronounce that the neutral is to go on in the en- 
joyment of all its rights, that its commerce remains free, not subject 
to the jurisdiction of another, nor consequently its vessels to search, 
or to enquiries whether their contents are the property oi an enemy, 
or are of those which have been called contraband of war." 

These opinions and arguments he communicated, in the form 
of instructions, to Robert R. Livingston, nominated minister pleni- 
potentiary to France the day after his assumption of office. They 
were communicated unofficially, however, and with the express 
reservation, that they were not to be acted upon until the desolating 
war in Europe, which threatened to embroil us with the principal 
belligerents, should be brought to a termination. The same prin- 
ciples had been repeatedly sanctioned by the government, and he 
entertained little doubt of the concurrence of his constitutional ad- 
visers. They formed a part of those much admired instructions of 
Congress, drafted by himself in 1784, to the first American minis- 
ters appointed to treat with the nations of Europe ; and were ac- 
ceded to by Prussia and Portugal. In the renewal of the treaty 
with Prussia, they had been avoided, at the instance of our then 
administration, lest it should seem to commit us against England. 
on a question then threatening decision by the sword ; and in tlie 
late treaty with the latter power, they had been abandoned by our 
envoy, which constituted a principal groimd of opposition to that 
memorable negotiation. Being now at the head of the govern- 
ment, Mr. Jefferson was anxious to avail himself of all the weight 
and efficacy of his station, to convince the nations of Europe that 
they had originally set out in error ; that their error had proved 
oppressive to the rights and interests of the peaceable part of man- 
kind ; and that the reformation of false principles could never be- 
gin better than with those who had been instrumental in establish- 
ing them. 

36* 



418 LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

Scarcely had the President entered upon the duties of his office, 
wlieii our commerce in the Mediterranean was placed under the ban 
of the Pirates. Tripoh, the least considerable of the Barbary Pow- 
ers, came forward with demands unfounded either in right or com- 
pact, and avowed the determination to extort them, at the point of 
thQ sword, on our failure to comply peaceably before a given day. 
The President felt keenly the insult inflicted on the honor of the 
nation by this extraordinary menace ; and, with becoming energj'', 
immediately put in operation such measures of resistance as the 
urgenc}^ of the case demanded, without waiting the advice of Con- 
gress. The style of the challenge admitted but one answer. He 
sent a squadron of frigates into the Mediterranean, with assurances 
to the Bey of Tripoli, of our sincere desire to remain in peace ; 
but with orders to protect our commerce, at all hazards, against 
the threatened attack. The measure was as seasonable as it was 
salutary. They Bey had already declared war in form. His 
cruisers were out ; two had arrived at Gibraltar. Our commerce 
in the Mediterranean was blockaded ; and that of the Atlantic in 
peril. The arrival of the American squadron dispelled the danger. 
One of the Tripolitan cruisers having fallen in with and engaged 
a small schooner of ours, which had gone out as a tender to the 
larger vessels, was captured, with a heavy slaughter of her men, 
and without the loss of a single one on our part. This severe 
chastisement, with the extraordinary skill and bravery exhibited by 
the Americans, quieted the pretensions of the Bey, and operated as a 
salutary cavition in future to that desperate community of freebooters. 
On the Sth of December, 1801, Mr. Jefferson made his first an- 
nual communication to Congress, hy message. It had been the 
imiform practice with his predecessors to make their first communi- 
cations, on the opening of Congress, by personal address, to which 
a formal answer was immediately returned by each House sepa- 
rately. The President always used to go, in state, as it was called, 
to deliver his speech. He moved to the capitol, preceeded by the 
Marshal and Constables of the District, with their white staffs, and 
accompanied by the heads of departments, the members of Con- 
gress, and a numerous procession of citizens. On these occasions 
he always wore his sword. A desire to impart a more popular char- 
acter to the government, by divesting it of a ceremonial which 
partook in some degree of a royal pageant, a regard to the conven- 
ience of the Legislature, the economy of their time, and relief from 



OP THOMAS JEFFERSON. 419 

embarrassments of immediate answers, induced Mr. JefiTerson to 
adopt the mode of communication by message, to which no answer 
was returned. And his example has been followed by all succeed- 
ing Presidents. 

The President announced in his message, with great gratifica- 
tion, that the cessatio'Vi of hostilities in Europe, had produced a con- 
sequent cessation of those irregularities which had afflicted the 
commerce of neutral nations ; and restored the ordinary commu- 
.nications of peace and friendship between the principal powers of 
the earth. That our intercourse with the Indians on ovir frontiers, 
was marked by a spirit of mutual conciliation and forbearance, 
highly advantageous to both parties. That our relations with the 
Barbary States were in a less satisfactory condition, and such as to 
inspire the belief that measures of offence ought to be authorized, 
sufficient to place our force on an equal footing with that of its 
adversaries. That the increase of population within the last ten 
years, as indicated by the late census, proceeded in such an unexam- 
pled ratio as promised a duplication every twenty -two years. That 
this circumstance, com.bined with others, had produced an augmen- 
tation of revenue arising from consumption, which proceeded in a 
ratio far beyond that of population, and authorized a reduction of 
such of its branches as were particularly odious and oppressive. 

Accordingly he recommended the abolition of all the internal 
taxes, comprehending excises, stamps, auctions, licences, carriages, 
and refined sugars ; to which he added the postage of newspapers 
to facilitate the progress of information. The remaining sources 
of revenue, aided by the extensive system of economies which he 
proposed to introduce, w'ould be sufficient, he contended, to provide 
for the support of government, to pay the interest of the public 
debt, and to discharge the principal in a shorter period than the 
laws, or the general expectation had contemplated. 

As supplemental, however, to the proposition for discontinuing the 
internal taxes, he recommended a sensible and salutary diminution 
of the public disbursements, by .the aboUtion of all superfluous drafts 
upon the treasury. He informed the Legislature of the progress 
he had already made in this depaitment of public duty, by the 
suppression of all unnecessary offices, agencies and missions, which 
depended on executive authority ; and recommended to their con- 
sideration a careful revision of the remainder. " Considering," says 



420 LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

be, " the general tendency to multiply offices and dependencies, 
and to increase expense to the ultimate term of burthen which the 
citizen can bear, it behooves us to avail ourselves of every occasion 
which presents itself, for taking oft' the surcharge ; that it never 
may be seen how that, after leaving to labor the smallest portion 
of its earnings on which it can subsist, government shall itself con- 
sume the residue of what it was instituted to guard." 

In order to multiply barriers against the dissipation of the public 
money, he recommended Congress to establish the practice of spe-' 
cific apjiropriations, in all specific cases susceptible of definition ; 
to reduce the undefined field of conf ingences ; and to bring back to 
a single department for examination and approval, all accountabil- 
ities for receipts and expenditures. 

He directed the attention of Congress to a revision of the army, 
and advised the reduction of the existing establishment to the num- 
ber of garrisons actually necessary, and the number of men requi- 
site for each garrison. A standing army in time of peace was both- 
unnecessary and dangerous. The militia was the main pillar of 
defence to the country, and the only force which could be ready at 
every point to repel unexpected invasion, until regulars could be 
provided to relieve them. This consideration rendered important 
a careful review, at every session, of the existing organization of 
the militia, and the amendment of such defects as from time to time 
might show themselves in the system, until it should be made suffi- 
ciently perfect. " Nor should we now," said he, " or at any time 
separate, until we can say we have done every thing for the militia 
which we could do were an enemy at our door." 

With respect to the navy, although a difference of opinion might 
exist as to the extent to which it should 'be carried, yet all would 
agree that a small force was continually wanted for actual service 
in the Mediterranean. All naval preparations beyond this, the 
President thought, should be confined to the provision of such arti- 
cles as might be kept without waste or consumption, and be in 
readiness for any exigence which might occur. 

Extensive fortifications, projected or commenced on a scale dis- 
proportioned to the advantages to be derived from them, which 
were expensive in their erection, expensive in their maintenance, 
and required a large force to garrison them, he questioned the util- 
ity of prosecuting or continuing. 



OF THOIVIAS JEFFERS01?r. 



421 



The President was of opinion, that agiicultmre, manufacture?, 
commerce and navigation, the four pillars of our prosperity, were 
jnost disposed to thrive when left most free to individual enterprise. 
Protection from casual embarrassments, however, might sometimes 
be seasonably interposed ; and was clearly within the constitutional 
limits of Congress. 

He submitted to the serious consideration of the Legislature, the 
Judiciary system of the United States, and suggested the expedi- 
ency of rescinding that branch of it recently erected, should it ap- 
pear on examination to be superfluous, of which he entertained no 
doubt. While on the subject of the Judiciary, he commended to 
their fostering protection the ' inestimable institution of juries,' urg- 
ing the propriety of their extension to all cases involving the secu- 
rity of our persons or property, and the necessity of their impartial 
selection. 

The President warmly recommended a revisal of the laws on 
the subject of naturalization, and an abbreviation of the period pre- 
scribed for acquiring citizenship. The existing regulation, requir- 
ing a residence of fourteen years, was a denial of citizenship to a 
great proportion of those who asked it, obstructive of the prosper- 
ous growth of the country, and incompatible with the humane spirit 
of our laws. 

After commending to them prudence and temperance in discus- 
sion, which were so conducive to harmony and rational conclusion 
within their own walls, and to that consolidation of sentiment amorig 
their constituents, which was progressing with such auspicious ra- 
pidity, the President concluded as follows: " That all should be 
satisfied with any one order of things, is not to be expected ; but I 
indulge the pleasing persuasion that the great body of our citizens 
will cordially concur in honest and disinterested eflforts, which have 
for their object to preserve the General and State governments jn 
their constitutional form and equihbrium ; to maintain peace abroad, 
and order and obedience to the laws at home ; to establish princi- 
ples and J^ctices of administration favorable to the security of lib- 
erty and property, and to reduce expenses to what is necessary for 
the useful purposes of government." 

The first message of the first democratic President of the United 
States, was anticipated, as w^as natural to be expected, with a fever 
of popular impatience. On its appearance, sensations diametrical- 



422 



LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 



ly opposite were excited in the two great divisions of the political 
public. The republicans contemplated it with a profound feeling 
of unalloyed satisfaction ; the federalists, with mingled disapproba- 
tion and dismay. The fundamental features of his policy, as pub- 
licly delineated by the President, were too unequivocal and strongly 
marked not to realize the warmest desires of his supporters, and the 
worst apprehensions of his adversaries. His propositions for reform- 
ing the prodigalities of the previous administrations, by the abolition 
of sinecures, and the estabhshment of a rigid accountability with 
the remaining offices of the government ; for cutting down the ar- 
my, and relying for ordinary protection on the unpensioned resource 
of an omnipresent militia ; for levelling the na.vy to the actual force 
required for covering our commerce from tlie ravages of the com- 
mon enemies of Christendom ; for the gradual and systematic ex- 
tinguishment of the public debt, in derision of the monarchical max- 
im, that ' a national debt is a national blessing' ; for circumscriljing 
discretionary powers over money, by establishing the rule of specific 
appropriations ; for restoring the hospitable polic}^ of the government 
towards aliens, and fugitives from foreign oppression ; for multiply- 
ing barriers around the sovereignty of the States and the liberties 
of the people, against the encroachments of the federal authorities, 
by crippling the despotism of the Judiciary, and lopping from it a 
supernumerary member engrafted by his predecessors for political 
purposes ; all these propositions were seized, with the spirit of de- 
mons, by his vanquished opponents, and made, o^e by one, a topic 
of unbridled denunciation and railery. On the other hand, in- 
numerable addresses of thanks by republican assemblies, and l)y 
individual champions &f the republican party, were communicated 
to him from every section of the Union. To these he returned 
public or private answers, according to the nature of the address. 
The following extract of a letter to the venerable John Dickinson, 
■ will suffice as a specimen of his private answers. 

" The approbation of my ancient friends is above all things the 
most grateful to my heart. They know for what obje|p we relin- 
quished the delights of domestic society, tranquillity, and science, 
and committed oui'selves to the ocean of revolution, to wear out the 
only life God has given us here, in scenes, tbe benefits of Avhich 
will accrue only to those who follow us. Surely we had in view to 
obtain the theory and practice of good government ; and how any, 
who seemed so ardent in this pursuit, could as shamelessly have 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 423 

apostatized, and supposed we meant only to put our government 
into other hands, but not other forms, is indeed, wonderful. The 
lesson we have had will probably be useful to the people at large, 
by showing to them how capable they are of being made the in- 
struments of their own bondage. A little more prudence and mod- 
eration in those who had momited themselves on their fears, and 
it would have been long and difficult to unhorse them. Their 
madness had done in three years, what reason alone acting against 
them would not have effected in many ; and the more, as they 
might have gone on forming new entrenchments for themselves 
from 5^ear to year. My great anxiety at present is, to avail our- 
selves of our.ascendency to establish good principles, and good prac- 
tices ; to foitify republicanism behind as many barriers as possible, 
that the outworks may give time to rally and save the citadel, 
should that be again in danger. On their part, they have retired 
into the judiciary as a strong hold. There the remains of federal- 
ism are to be preserved and fed from the treasury, and from that 
battery, all the works of republicanism are to be beaten down and 
erased. By a fraudulent use of the constitution, which has made 
judges irremovable, they have multiplied useless judges merely to 
strengthen their phalanx." 

But of all the measures of reform recommended in the President's 
message, none was so auspicious, none so extensive, as the proposi-t 
tion to suppress all the internal taxes. This wns indeed a solid in-' 
culcation of the beneficent purposes of administration. The internal ', 
institution was a distinguishing feature of the Hamiltonian system 
of finance, and had constituted throughout a powerful entrench- 
ment to the ancient order of things. It is a surprising fact, that the 
officers employed in its management, embraced three fourths of all 
the officers in the pay of the government. They were spread over 
the country, stationed in every town and hamlet, Uke so many cen- 
tiuels on the outposts of the citadel, and comprised, in the aggre- 
gate, an army of stipendiaries at the beck of the treasury chief. 
In proposing to disband all these at a stroke, the President med- 
itated the disarming the government of an immense resource of 
executive patronage and preponderance, besides relieving the people 
of an arbitrary and oppressive surcharge of taxation. The disin- 
terestedness and beneficence of the transaction were only equalled 
by its boldness, at which the republicans themselves were consider- 
ably alarmed. In a letter to one of them, dated December 19, 
1801, the President wrote : 

" You will perhaps have been alarmed, as some have been, at the 



424 LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

proposition to abolish the whole of the internal taxes. But it is 
perfectly safe. They are under a million of dollars and we can 
economize the government two or three miUions a year. The im- 
post alone gives us ten or eleven millions annually, increasing at a 
compound ratio of six and two thirds per cent, per annum, and 
consequently doubling in ten years. But leaving that increase for 
contingencies, the present amount will support the government, pay 
the interest of the public debt, and discharge the principal in fifteen 
years. If the increase proceeds, and no contingencies demand it, 
it will pay off the principal in a shorter time. Exactly one half of 
the public debt, to wit, thirty-seven millions of dollars, is owned in 
the United States. That capital then will be set afloat, to be em- 
ployed in rescuing our commerce from the hands of foreigners, or 
in agriculture, canals, bridges, or other useful enterprises. By sup- 
pressing at once the whole external taxes, we abolish three fourths 
of ihe offices now existing, and spread over the land. Seeing the 
interest you take in the public affairs, I have indulged myself in 
observations flowing from a sincere and ardent desire of seeing our 
affairs put into an honest and advantageous train." 

Fortunately, the first Congress which assembled after Mr. Jeffer- 
son came into power, contained an ascendency of republicanism in 
both Houses ; with just enough of opposition to hoop the majority 
indissolubly together, and enable the Legislature to move in strong 
and harmonious co-operation with the Executive. They erected 
into laws all the fundamental reformations recommended by the 
President, and thereby enabled him to carry through a system of 
administration which abolished the former regimen generally, and 
substantially revolutionized the government. To notice the single 
feature of frugality, b}'' the extensive economies which he introduc- 
ed, he diminished the expenses of the government 3,000,000 of 
dollars ! and, after answering the regular exigences of the govern- 
ment, he discharged eight millions of the national debt, principal 
and interest, the first year of his administration, and left four and 
a half millions of dollars in the treasury, for application to the fur- 
ther discharge of debt and current demands ! The result is unpar- 
alleled in the annals of civil government. " When effects, so sal- 
utary," says the President in his second annual message, " result 
from the plans you have already sanctioned, when merely by avoid- 
ing false objects of expense, we are able, without a direct tax, with- 
out internal taxes, and without borrowing, to make large and effec- 
tual payments towards the discharge of our public debt, and the 
emancipation of our posterity from that mortal canker, it is an en^ 



OF THOMAS JEFFRSON. 425 

couragement, fellow citizens, of the highest order, to proceed as we 
have began in substituting economy for taxation, in pursuing what 
is useful for a nation placed as we are, rather than what is practised 
by others under different circumstances. And whensoever we are 
destined to meet events which shall call forth all the energies of our 
countrymen, we have the firmest reliance on those energies, and the 
comfort of leaving for calls like these, the extraordinary resources of 
loans and internal taxes. In the mean time, by payments of the 
principal of our debt, we are liberating, annually, portions of the ex- 
ternal taxes, and forming from them a growing fund, still further 
to lessen the necessity of recvuTing to extraordinary resources." 

The following paragraph, extracted from a letter of the President^ 
to General Kosciusko, dated April 2, 1802, presents a very modest 
and comprehensive outline of the proceedings of the Legislature in 
pursuance of the executive recommendations. 

" The session of the first Congress convened since republicanism 
has recovered its ascendency, is now drawing to a close. They will 
pretty completely fulfil all the desires of the people. They have re- 
duced the army and navy to what is barely necessary. They are 
disarming executive patronage and preponderance, by putting down 
one half the oflfices of the United States, which are no longer neces- 
sary. These economies have enabled them to suppress all the in- 
ternal taxes, and still to make such provision for the payment of 
their public debt as to discharge that in eighteen years. They have 
lopped off a parasite limb, planted by their predecessors on their ju- 
diciary body for party purposes ; they are opening the doors of hos- 
pitality to the fugitives from the oppressions of other countries ; and 
we have suppressed all those public forms and ceremonies which 
tended to familiarize the public eye to the harbingers of another 
form of government. The people are neaily all united ; their quon- 
dam leaders, infiuiated with the sense of their impotence, will soon 
be seen or heard only in the newspapers, which serve as chimneyi-' 
to carry off noxious vapors and smoke, and all is now tranquil, firm, 
and well, as it should be." 

The Sedition Law, not included in the above glance, which pro- 
tected from popular scrutiny and discussion the extravagancies, de- 
linquencies, and heresies of the government authorities, was per- 
mitted to expire by its own hmitation. It experienced a natural 
death, in the course of this session, without even the hope of a day 
of resurrection. To these specific improvements might be added 
the general simplification of the system of finance, in which he was 

37 



426 LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

powerfully aided by the logical mind of a Gallatin ; and the estab- 
lishment of the permanent rule of definite appropriations of money 
for all objects susceptible of definition, so that every person in the 
United States might know for what purpose, and to what amount, 
every fraction of public expenditure was applied. His personal 
watchfulness over this department of administration, the operations 
of which are so intimately interwoven with all human concerns, is 
forcibly illustrated by the following letter to the Secretary of the 
Treasury. 

"I have read and considered your report on the operations of the 
sinking' fund, and entirely approve of it, as the best plan on which 
we can set out. I think it an object of great importance, to be kept 
in view and to be undertaken at a fit season, to simphfy our system 
of finance, and bring it within the comprehension of every mem- 
ber of Congress. Hamilton set out on a different plan. In order 
that he might have the entire government of his machine, he deter- 
mined so to complicate it as that neither the President nor Congress 
should be able to understand it, or to control him. He succeeded in 
doing this, not only beyond their reach, but so that he at length 
could not unravel it himself. He gave to the debt, in the first in- 
stance, in funding it, the most artificial and mysterious form he 
could devise. He then moidded up liis appropriations of a number 
of scraps and remnants, many of which were nothing at all, and ap- 
plied them to different objects in reversion and remainder, until the 
whole system was involved in impenetrable fog ; and while he was 
giving himself the airs of providing for the payment of the debt, he 
left himself free to add to it continually, as he did in fact, instead of 
paying it. I hke your idea of kneading all his little scraps and frag- 
ments into one batch, and adding to it a complementary sum, 
which, while it forms it into a single mass from which every thing 
is to be paid, will enable us, should a breach of appropriation ever 
be charged on us, to prove that the sum appropriated, and more, has 
been applied to its specific object. 

•' But there is a point beyond this, on which I should wish to keep 
my eye, and to which I should aim to approach by every tack which 
' previous arrangements force on us. That is, to form into one con- 
;£(;)Udated mass all the monies received into the treasury, and to mar- 
shal the several expenditures, giving them a preference of payment 
according to the order in which they shall be arranged. As for ex- 
ample. I. The interest of the public debt. 2. Such portions of 
principal as are exigible. 3. The expenses of government. 4. 
Such other portions of principal as, though not exigible, we are still 
free to pay when we please. The last object might be made to take 
up the residuum of money remaining in the treasury at the end of 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 



42T 



every year, after the three first objects were compUed with, and would 
be the barometer whereby to test the economy of the administra- 
tion. It would furnish a simple measure by which every one could 
mete their merit, and by which every one could decide when taxes 
were deficient orsuperabundant. If to this can be added a simplifica- 
tion of the form of accounts in the treasury department, and in the 
organization of its officers, so as to bring every thing to a single centre, 
we might hope to see the finances of the Union as clear and intelligi 
ble as a merchant's books, so that every member of Congress, and ev- 
ery man of any mind in the Union, should be able to comprehend 
them, to investigate abuses, and consequently to control them. Our 
predecessors have endeavored by intricacies of system, and shuffling 
the investigator over from one officer to another, to cover every thing 
from detection. I hope we shall go in the contrary direction, and 
that, by our honest and judicious reformations, we may be able, 
within the limits of our time, to bring things back to that simple 
and intelligible system, on which they should have been organized 
at first. 

"I have suggested only a single alteration in the report, which is 
merely verbal and of no consequence. We shall now get rid of the 
commissioner of the interna] revenue, and superintendant of stamps. 
It remains to amalgamate the comptroller and auditor into one, and 
reduce the I'egister to a clerk of accounts ; and then the organiza- 
tion will consist, as it should at first, of a keeper of monej', a keep- 
er of accounts, and the head of the department. This constellation 
of great men in the treasury department was of a piece with the 
rest of Hamilton's plans. He took his own stand as a Lieutenant 
General, surrounded by his Major Generals, and stationed his Brig- 
adiers and Colonels under the name of Supervisors, Inspectors, &c. 
in the different States. liCt us deserve well of our country by- 
making her interests the end of all our plans, and not our own 
ponrp, patronage, and irresponsibility. I have hazarded these hasty 
and crude ideas, which occurred on contemplating your report. 
Tliey may be the subject of future conversation and correction." 

Being now identified, as it were, with the Republic, to write the 
history of Mr, Jefferson Avould be to write the history of the United 
States, during one of the most plethoric portions of their political ex- 
istence. But this would be an undertaking as disproportioned to the 
means of the writer, as to the limits by which he is circumscribed. 
Nothing more can be expected in the present plan, than an outline 
of the general policy, foreign and domestic, pursued by the Presi- 
dent, and of the prominent measures which distinguished his ad- 
ministration. 



428 LIFE; WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

Auiovig these, the purchase of Louisiana from France, as it was 
of the first in point of time, was incomparably the first in magni- 
tude and importance. It had long been a favorite object with Mr. 
Jefferson, as essential to removing from the United States a point of 
eternal friction, and cause of war with the European possessor, be- 
sides securing to us the exclusive navigation of the western waters, 
and an immeasurable region of fertile country. The territory of 
Louisiana was originally colonized by France. In 1762, the great- 
er part of it, including the island of New -Orleans, was ceded to 
Spain ; and by the general treaty of peace which followed the 
Canadian war in '63, the whole territory of France and Spain, east- 
ward of the Mississippi to the Ibberville, thence through the middle 
of that river to the sea, was ceded to Great Britain. Under the for- 
mer possession by France, the territory embraced what is denomin- 
ated West Florida. Spain, during the war of the Revolution, con- 
quered this, with East Florida, from Great Britain, and acquired the 
right to them both by the treaty of 'S3. While in the hands of Spain. 
the United States acquired the right to a free navigation of the Mis- 
sissippi, and to an entrepot at New-Ofleans. About this time, to wit, 
in 1800, Spain retroceded to Fiance the whole of Louisiana accord- 
ing to its ancient and proper limits. 'J'his transfer was attended 
with a suspension of our right of deposite at New-Orleans, and open- 
ed to us, in the opinion of the President, the dreadful prospect of a 
complete reversal of all our friendly relations with France. In 
view of the threatening crisis, he immediately joined Mr. Monroe as 
Envoy Extraordinary, to R. R. Livingston, Minister resident at the 
French Court, with instructions joint and several to negotiate the 
purchase of Louisiana from France. In the letter to Mr. Monroe 
conveying the notice of his appointment, the President says : " All 
eyes, all hopes are now fixed on you ; and were you to decline, the 
chagrin would be universal, and would shake under your feet the 
high ground on which you stand with the public. Indeed, I know 
nothing which would produce such a shock. For on the event of 
this mission depend the future destinies of this repiibhc. If we 
cannot, by a purchase of the country, insure to ourselves a course 
of perpetual peace and friendship with all nations, then, as war 
cannot be distant, it behooves us immediately to be preparing for that 
course, without, however, hastening it ; and it may be necessary, 
on your failure on the continent, to cross the channel. We shall 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 429 

get entangled in European politics, and figuring* more, be much 
less happy and prosperous. This can only be prevented by a suc- 
cessful issue to your present mission. I am sensible after the meas- 
ures you have taken for getting into a different line of business, that 
it will be a great sacrifice on your part, and presents from the sea- 
son and other circumstances, serious difficulties. But some men 
are born for the public. Nature, by fitting them for the service of 
the human race on a broad scale, has stamped them with the evi- 
dences of her destination and their duty." 

The personal agency of Mr. Jefferson in this briUiant achieve- 
ment was of the most laborious and efficacious character. Besides 
his official instructions communicated through the Secretary of 
State, his private letters to our Ministers, and to influential charac- 
ters in France, on whose fideUty and friendship he relied, are splen- 
did testiilionials of his ardor and indefatigableness in the prosecu- 
tion of the enterprise. Among these, the following, addressed to 
Mr. Livingston, is pre-eminent in merit. 

'• The cession of Louisiana and the Floridas by Spain to France, 
works most sorely on the United States. On this subject the Sec- 
retary of State has written to you fully, yet I cannot forbear recur- 
ring to it personally, so deep is the impression it makes on my mind. 
It completely reverses all the political relations of the United States. 
and will form a new epoch in our pohtical course. Of all nations 
of any consideration, France is the one, which, hitherto, has offer- 
ed the fewest points on which we could have any conflict of right, 
and the most points of a communion of interests. From these cau- 
ses we have ever looked to her as our natural friend, as one with 
which we never could have an occasion of difference. Her growth, 
therefore, we viewed as our own, her misfortunes ours. There is on 
the globe one single spot, the possessor of which is our natural and 
habitual enemy. It is New Orleans, through which the produce of 
three eighths of our territory must pass to market, and from its fer- 
tility it will ere long yield more than half of our whole produce, and 
contain more than half of our inhabitants. France, placing herself 
in that door, assumes to us the attitude of defiance. Spain might 
have retained it quietly for years. Her pacific dispositions, her fee- 
ble state, would induce her to increase our facihties there, so that 
her possession of the place would be hardly felt by us, and it would 
not, perhaps, be very long before some circumstances might arise, 
which might make the cession of it to us the price of something of 
more worth to her. Not so can it ever be in the hands of France : 
the impetuosity of her temper, the energy and restlessness of her 
character, placed in a point of eternal friction with us. and our char- 

37* 



^^^ 



430 LIFE, writings;, and opinions 

actei, which, though quiet and loving peace and tlie pursuit of 
vvealtii, is high-minded, despising wealth in competition with in- 
sult or injury, enterprising and energetic as any nation on earth ; 
these circumstances render it impossible that France and the United 
States can continue long friends, when they meet in so irritable a 
position'. They, as well as we, must be blind, if they do not see 
this : and we must be very improvident if we do not begin to make 
arrangements on that hypothesis. The day that France takes pos- 
session of New Orleans, fixes the sentence which is to restrain her • 
for ever within her low- water mark. It seals the union of two na- 
tions, who, in conjunction, can maintain exclusive possession of the 
ocean. From that moment we must marr)?^ ourselves to the British 
fleet and nation. We must turn all our attentions to a maritime 
force, for which our resources place us on very high ground : and. 
having formed and connected together a power which may render 
reinforcement of her settlements here impossible to France, make 
the first cannon which shall be fired in Europe the signal for tearing 
up any settlement she may have made, and for holding "the two 
continents of America in sequestration for the common purposes of 
the United British and American nations. This is not a state of 
things we seek or desire. It is one v^hich this measure, if adopted 
])y France, forces on us as necessarily, as any other cause, by the 
laws of nature, brings on its necessary effect. It is not from a fear 
of France that we deprecate this measure proposed by her. For 
iiowever greater her force is than. ours, compared in the abstract, it 
is nothing in comparison of ours, when to be exerted on our soil. 
But it is from a sincere love of peace, and a firm persuasion, that, 
bound to France by the interests and the strong sympathies still ex- 
istino" in the minds of our citizens, and holding relative positions 
which insure their continuance, we are secure of a long course of 
peace. Whereas, the change of friends, which will be rendered ne- 
cessary if France changes that position, embarks us necessarily as 
a belligeient power in the first war of Europe. In that case, France 
will have held possession of New Orleans during the interval of a 
peace, long or short, at the end of which it will be wrested from her. 
Will this short-lived possession have been an equivalent to her for 
the transfer of such a weight into the scale of her enemy ? Will not 
the amalgamation of a young, thriving nation, continue to that ene- 
my the health and force which are at present so evidently on the de- 
cline ? And will a few years possession of New Orleans add equal- 
ly to the strength of France ? She may say she needs Louisiana 
for the supply of her West Indies. She does not need it in time of 
peace, and in war she could not depend on them, because they would 
be so easily intercepted. I should suppose that all these considera- 
tions might, in some proper form, l>e brought into view of the gov- 
ernment of France. Though stated by us, it ought not to give of- 
fence ; because we do not bring them forward as a menace, but as 



^ 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 431 

consequences not controllable by us, but inevitable from the course 
of things. We mention them, not as things which we desire by 
any means, but as things we deprecate ; and we beseech a friend to 
look forward and to prevent them for our common interests." * * 
" I have no doubt you have urged these considerations, on every 
proper occasion, with the government where you are. They are 
such as must have effect, if you can find means of producing thor- 
ough reflection on them by that government. The idea here is, 
that the troops sent to St. Domingo, were to proceed to Louisiana af- 
ter finishing their work in that island. If this were the arrange- 
ment, it will give you time to return again and again to the charge. 
For the conquest of St. Domingo will not be a short work. It will 
take considerable time, and wear down a great number of soldiers. 
Every eye in the United States is now fixed on the afiixirs of Louis- 
iana. Perhaps nothing, since the revolutionary war, has produced 
more uneasy sensations thvough the body of the nation. Notwith- 
standing temporary bickerings have taken place with France, she 
has still a strong hold on the affections of our citizens generall}". I 
have thought it not amiss, by way of supplement to the letters of 
the Secretary of State, to write you this private one, to impress you 
with the importance we affix to this transaction. I pray you to 
cherish Dupont. He has the Ijest dispositions for the continuance 
of friendship between the two nations, and pei haps you may be able 
to make a good use of him." 

On the 30th of April 1S03, the negotiation was concluded, and 
the entire province of Louisiana ceded to the United States for the 
sum of fifteen milhonsjof^dollars. The American negotiators seized 
the favorable moment to urge the claims of American mercjiantson 
the French Government, for spoliations on their property, which 
were allowed to .the amount of three millions seven hundred and 
fifty thousand dollars, and the bargain was thus closed. This im- 
portant acquisition more than doubled the territory of the United 
States, trebled the quantity of fertile country, secured the uncon- 
trolled navigation of the Mississippi and its tributaries, and opened 
an independent outlet for the produce of the Western States, free 
from collision with other Powers, and the perpetual dangers to our 
j^eace from that source. The treaty was received with unbounded 
approbation by the great majority of the nation. The monarchical 
federalists, particularly in the Eastern States, wrote and declaimed 
furiously against it. They saw in the great enlargement of our ter- 
ritory the seeds of a future dismemberment of the Union, by a sepa- 
raticyi into Eastern and Western confederacies, which they were 



432 L.IFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

rather disposed to foment than to discountenance. On the other 
Jiand, it was the opinion of the President, that the acquisition would 
prove an additional bond of union, rather than a cause- of dismem- 
berment ; that the laiger our association, the less would it be shaken 
by local factions ; and that no one could presume to limit the ex- 
tent to which the federative principle might operate efiectively. Mr, 
Madison maintained the same opinion in the Federalist ; and ex- 
perience has hitherto confirmed it. But in any yiew, were those 
imaginary and very apochryphal dangers worthy a moment's con- 
sideration, when contrasted with the certain and incalculable bles- 
sings of the conquest, as well positive and immediate, as by the avoid- 
ance, in future, of those interminable calamities Avhich would have 
ensured a contrary state of things .^ Was it not better that the op- 
posite bank of the Mississippi should be settled by our own brethren 
and children than by strangers of adversary feelings and principles ? 
With which should we have been most likely to have lived in 
harmony and friendl)'" intercourse, down to the present day ? 

To General Gates. — " I accept with pleasure, and with pleas- 
ure reciprocate your congratulations on the acquisition of Louisiana : 
for it is a subject of mutual congratulation, as it interests every man 
of the nation. The territory acquired, as it includes all the waters 
of the Missouri and Mississippi, has more than doubled the area of 
the United States, and the new part is not inferior to the old in soil, 
climate, productions, and important communications. If our legis- 
lature dispose of it with the wisdom we have a right to expect, they 
may make it the means of tempting all our Indians on the east side 
of the Mississippi to remove to the west, and of condensing instead 
of scattering our population. I iind our opposition is very Avilling to 
pluck feathers from Monroe, although not fond of sticking them in- 
to Livingston's coat. The truth is, both have a just portion of mer- 
it ; and were it necessary or proper, it would be shown that each 
has rendered pecuhar services, and of important value. These 
grumblers, too, are very uneasy lest the administration should share 
some little credit for the acquisition, the whole of which they ascribe 
to the accident of war. They would be cruelly mortified could they 
see ovu: files from Ma}'^, 1801, the first organization of the adminis- 
tration, but more especially from April, 1802. They would see, 
that though we could not say when war would arise, yet we said 
with energy what would take place when it should arise. We did 
not, by our intrigues, produce the war ; but we availed ourselves of 
it when it happened. The other party saw the case now existing, 
on which our representations were predicated, and the wisdom of 
timely sacrifice. But when these people make the war give us ev- 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 



433 



ery thing, they autboiize us to ask what the war gave us in their 
day 'J They had a war ; what did they make it bring us 'I In- 
stead of making our neutrahty the ground of gain to their country, 
they were for phmging into the war. And if they were now in 
place, they woukl now be at war against the atheists and disorgani- 
zers of France. They were for making their country an appendage 
to England. We are friendly, cordially and conscientiously friendly 
to England, l3ut we are not hostile to France. We will be rigorous- 
ly just and sincerely friendly to both. I do not beheve we shall have 
as much to swallow from them as our predecessors had." 

To Doctor PiiiESTLEY. — " I very early saw that Louisiana was 
indeed a speck in our horizon, which was to burst in a tornado ; and 
the public are unapprized how near this catastrophe was. Nothing 
but a frank and friendly development of causes and etfects on our 
part, and good sense enougli in Bonapaitc to see that the train was 
unavoidable, and would change the face of the world, saved us from 
that storn). I did not expect he would yield till a war took place 
between France and England, and my hope Avas to palliate and en- 
dure, if Messrs. Ross, Morris, &c. did not force a premature rupture 
until that event. I believed the event not very distant, but acknowl- 
edge it came on sooner than J had expected. Whether, however, 
the good sense of Bonaparte might not see the course predicted to 
be necessary apd unavoidable, even before a war should be immi- 
nent, was a chance v.hich v:s. thouglit it c.i:r duty to try : but thoiiii- 
mediate prospect of rupture brought the case to immediate decision. 
The denouement has been happy : and I confess I look to this du- 
plication of area for the extending a government so free and econom- 
ical as ours, as a great achievement to the mass of happiness which 
is to ensue. Whether we remain in one confederac)^, or form into 
Atlantic and Mississippi confederacies, I believe not very important 
to the happiness of either part. Those of the v.estern confederacy 
will be as much our children and descendants as those of the east- 
ern, and I feel myself as much identified with that country, in future 
time, as with this : and did I now foresee a separation at some fu- 
ture day, yet I should feel the duty and the desire to promote the 
western interests as zealously as the eastern, doing all the good for 
both portions of our future family which should fall within my pow- 

To M, DupoNT Di: I^Jemoi'rs. — " The treaty which has so 
happily sealed the friendship of our two countries, has been receiv- 
ed here Avitli general acclamation. Some inflexible federalists have 
still ventured to brave the public opinion. It will fix their charac- 
ter with the world and with posterity, who, not descending to the 
other points of diffeience between us, will judge them by this fact, 
so palpable as to speak for itself, in all times and places. For my- 
self and my country I thank you for the aids you have given in it ; 



434 LIFE. WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

and I congratulate you on having lived to give those aids in a 
transaction replete Avith blessings to unborn millions of men, and 
■which will mark the face of a portion on the globe so extensive as 
that which now composes the United States of America. * * * 
Our policy will be to form New Orleans and the country on both 
sides of it on the Gulf of Mexico, into a State ; and, as to all above 
that, to transplant our Indians into it. constituting them a Mare- 
chaussee to prc\ent emigrants crossing the river, until we shall have 
^lled up all the vacant country on this side. This will secure both 
Spain and us as to the mines of Mexico, for half a century, and we 
may safely trust the provisions for that time to the men who shall 
live in it." 

When the treaty arrived, the President convened Congress at the 
earhest day practicable, for its ratification and execution. The fed- 
eralists in both Houses declaimed and voted against it, but the)^ were 
now so reduced in numbers as to be incapable of serious opposition. 
The question on its ratification in the Senate was decided by twen- 
ty-four against seven. The vote in the House of Representatives 
for making provision for its execution, was carried by eighty-nine 
against twent3^-thiee. Mr. Pichon, Minister of Fiance, proposed, 
according to instructions from his government, to have added to the 
ratification a protestation against any failure in time or other circum- 
stances of execution, on our part. He was told by the President, 
that in that case a counter protestation would be annexed on our 
part, which would leave the thing exactly where it was ; that the 
negotiation had been conducted from the commencement to its pre- 
sent stage, with a frankness and sincerity honorable to both nations, 
and comfortable to the heart of an honest man to review ; that to 
annex to this last chapter of the transaction such an evidence of mu- 
tual distrust, would be to change its aspect dishonorably to both par- 
ties ; that we had not the smallest doubt that Fiance would punctu- 
ally execute her part ; and that he had more confidence in the word 
of the First Consul than in all the parchment we could sign. See- 
ing the ratification passed, and the bills for execution carrying by 
large majorities in l30th Houses, Mr. Pichon, like an able and hon- 
est Minister, undertook to do what he knew his employers would 
have done, with a like knowledge of the circumstances, and exchan- 
ged the ratifications purely and simply. So this instrument went 
before the world as an evidence of the candor and mutual confi- 
dence of the nations, which was attended with the best effects. 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 435 

(Commissioners were immediately deputed to receive possession. 
They proceeded to New Orleans, with such regular troops as were 
garrisoned in the nearest posts, and with some militia of the Missis- 
sippi territory. To be prepared for any thing unexpected, which 
might arise out of the transaction, a respectable body of militia was 
ordered to be in readiness, in the States of Ohio, Kentucky and Ten- 
nessee. No occasion, however, arose for their services. Our com- 
missioners, on their arrival at New Orleans, found the province al- 
ready delivered by the commissaries of Spain to that of France, who 
delivered it over to them on the 20th of December, 1803. 

The purchase of Louisiana is considered the greatest political 
event, next to the Revolution, commemorated in American history. 
The circumstance ought not to be overlooked that this mighty con- 
quest, exceeding in territory the greatest monarchy in Europe, was 
achieved, without the guilt or calamities of blood, from a mihtary 
autocrat, whose ceaseless ambition was an universahty of empire, 
and who, in the untamable pursuit of his purpose, went on demolish- 
ing nations at a blow, and partitioning the earth at pleasure, until 
vanquished by tlie consolidated power of Europe. The mind is 
lost in the magnificence of the achievement, and the vastness of its 
consequences ; its glories can only be commemorated in the unceas- 
ing homage of the unborn milhons who will participate of its bles- 
sings. '• There is no country" says a writer, " like the valley of 
the Mississippi on the face of the globe. — Follow the mighty ara- 
pitheatre of rocks that nature has heaped around it. Trace the ten 
tliousand rivers that unite their waters in the mighty Mississippi ; 
count the happy millions that already crowd and animate their 
banks — loading their channels with a mighty produce. Then see 
the whole, bound by the hand of nature in chains which God alone 
can sever, to a perpetual union at one little connecting point ; and by 
that point fastening itself by every tie of interest, consanguinity, and 
feeling, to the remotest promontory on our Atlantic coast. A few 
short years have done all this ; and yet ages are now before us : 
ages in which myriads are destined to multiply throughout its wide 
spread territory, extending the greatness and the happiness of our 
country from sea to sea. What would we have been without the 
acquisition of Louisiana ? What were we before it ? God and na- 
ture fixed the unalterable decree, that the nation which held New 
' Orleans should govern the whole of that vast region. France, 



436 LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

Spain, and Great Britain, had bent their envious eyes upon it. 
And their intrigues, if matured, would eventually have torn from 
us that vast Paradise which reposes upon the western waters. * * 
Other conquests bring with them misery and oppression to the luck- 
less inhabitant. This brought emancipation, civil and religious 
freedom, laws, wealth, and the glories of the 8th of January." 

The humane and conciliatory policy extended towards the In- 
dians on our frontiers, was another distinguishing feature of the Ad- 
ministration. A free and friendly commerce was opened between 
them and the United States. Trading houses were established 
among them, and necessaries furnished them in exchange for their 
commodities, at such moderate prices as were only not losing to us, 
while highly advantageous to them. Instead of relying on an aug- 
mentation of mihtary force, proportioned to our constant extension 
of frontier, the President recommended a gradual enlargement of 
the capital employed in this species of commerce, as a more effectu- 
al, economical, and humane instrument for preserving peace and 
good neighborhood with the aborigines. The visible and tangible 
advantages of civilization were spread before their eyes, with a view 
to train their minds insensibly to the reception of its moral blessings. 
They were liberally supplied wnth the implements of husbandry and 
household use ; instructors in the arts of first necessity were located 
and maintained among them ; the introduction of ardent spirits in- 
to their limits, was prohibited, at the request of many of their chiefs ; 
and the punishment of death by hanging was commuted into death 
by mihtary execution, which was less repugnant to their ideas, 
and diminished the obstacles to the surrender of the criminah 

The practice of the art of vaccination, first successfully introduc- 
ed into this country by the patronage and philanthropic exertions of 
President Jefferson, was made by him to diffuse its blessings among 
the Indians, with an effect as astonishing as it was humane and 
endearing. The terrible pestilence, of wdiich this beneficent dis- 
covery proved a heaven-descended antidote, was even more fatal in 
its ravages among the natives of the wilderness than in civilized 
society. The medical skill of their physicians had not attained 
even to an assuagent of its violence. Whole tribes were swept 
away at a blast. They opposed no other shield against its attacks 
than flight, or the fortitude of martyrs. By the kind persuasions and 
attentive exertions of the President, they were induced to beheve in 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 437 

the efficacy of vaccination as a preventative. Coming from so good 
and great a father, they thought it must have been sent him horn 
the Great Spirit ; and whole nations submitted to the process of in- 
oculation, with the warmest benedictions on their benevolent pro- 
tector. 

These conciliatory measures of the government, with tlie most 
rigorous enactments against the intrusion and machinations of 
fanatical incendiaries and hostile emissaries, established and main- 
tained a course of friendly relations with the Indians, which was 
uninterrupted by war with a single tribe, during Mr. Jefferson's ad- 
ministration. Out of this continued state of peace and reciprocal 
kindness, treaties sprung up annually, which secured to the United 
States unbounded accessions to their territorial title. The same 
year that witnessed the acquisition of Louisiana, was distinguished 
by the purchase from the Kaskaskias, of that vast and fertile coun- 
try extending along the Mississippi, from the mouth of the Illinois, 
to, and up the Ohio ; which was followed, the next year, by the re- 
linquishment from the Delawares of native title to all the country 
between the Wabash and Ohio. These extensive acquisitions com- 
prehended the territory which forms the present States of IlUnois and 
Indiana. They were soon followed by other purchases of great ex- 
tent and fertility, from the Northern tribes, and from the Chicka- 
saws, Cherokees and Creeks, of the Southern. The amount of na- 
tional domain to which the native title was extinguished, under Mr. 
Jefferson, embraced nearly one hundred millions of acres ! In ex- 
change for this, with the enjoyment of an uninterrupted peace with 
them, the United States had only to pay inconsiderable annuities in 
animals, in money, in the miplements of agriculture, and to extend 
to them their patronage and protection. 

The administration of Mr. Jefferson, in relation to foreign Pow- 
ers, was based upon the broad principles of his inaugural maxim. 
• — " peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations, en- 
tangling alliances with none." His opinions on commerce were the 
same as those inculcated in his masterly report in '93 ; and they were 
such as have ever since been sanctioned by the government. The 
ports 6f the United States were declared open to all nations, with- 
out distinction, and the unmolested enjoyment of the ocean, as the 
common theatre of navigation, was claimed as an inviolaljle right. 
Freedom was offered for freedom, and prohibition was opposed to 

38 



438 LIFE- WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 



prohibition, in equal measure, with every nation on the globe. A 
free system of commerce, which should leave to the fraternity of na- 
tions the exchange of mutual surplusses for mutual wants, on the 
basis of easy and exact reciprocity, was the first wish of his heart ; 
but if any nation, deceived by false calculations of interest into a 
contrary system, should defeat that wish, his determination was fix- 
ed to meet inequalities abroad, by countervailing inequalities at 
home, as the only eflectual weapon of coercion, and of sclf-protee 
tion. With regard to treaties, it was the system of the President to 
have none with any nation, as far as could be avoided. The exist- 
ing treaties, therefore, were permitted to expire, without renewal, and 
all overtures for treaty with other nations were declined. He be- 
lieved, that with nations as with individuals, dealings might be car- 
ried on asadvatitageously, perhaps more so, while their continuance 
depended on voluntary and reciprocal good treatment, as if fixed by 
a permanent contract, which, when it became injurious to either 
party, was made, by forced constructions, to mean what suited them, 
and became a cause of war, instead of a bond of peace. He had a 
perfect horror at every thing like connecting ourselves with the poli- 
tics of Europe. They were governed by so many false principles of 
foreign intercourse, that he deemed a temporary acquiescence under 
these, preferable to entangling ourselves with them by alliances ex- 
torted from our present imbecility on the water. Peace was now 
our most important interest, and a recovery from debt. " If we can 
delay but for a few years," he wrote to an American Minister, " the 
necessity of vindicating the laws of nature on the ocean, we shall be 
the more sure of doing it with effect. The day is within ony time 
as well as yours, when we may say by what laws other nations 
shall treat us on the sea. And we will say it. In the mean time 
we wish to let every treaty we have drop off Avithout renewal." 
With regard to the British government, in particular, he had so little 
confidence that they would voluntarily retire from their habitual 
wrongs in the impressment of our seamen, that without an express 
stipulation to that effect, he was satisfied we ought never to tie up 
our hands, by treaty, from the right of passing non -importation or 
non-intercourse acts, to make it their interest to become just. 

Out of this keen sensibihty to miaritime injuries, a transaction arose 
which has been a source of torrents of abuse upon the President. 
A commitiee of the Senate called on him with two resolutions of 
that body on the subject of impressment and spoliations by Great. 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 



439 



Britain, and velien\ently urged the importance of an extraordinary 
mission, to demand satisfaction. The President revolted at the idea. 
After so many injuries and indignities fi'om that nation, such a 
mark of respect as an extraordinary mission, was a degradation to 
which he could not submit. He was so averse to the measiue, and 
gave them so hard an answer, that they felt it most sorely. But it 
did not end here. The members of the other House set upon him 
individually, and represented the responsibility which a failure to 
obtain redress would throw on him, pursuing a course in opposition 
to the opinion of nearly every member of the legislature. He found 
it necessary, at length, to yield to the general sense of the national 
council ; and accordingly nominated Mr. Monroe as Minister Ex- 
traordinary, to join the ordinary one, Mr. Pinckney, at the British 
Court. Explicit instructions were given them to conclude no treaty 
without a specific article guarding against impressments. After a 
tedious negotiation they succeeded in concluding a treaty — the best 
undotibtedly that could be procured — but containing no provision in 
conformity to the sine qua noii expressed in their instructions, rela- 
tive to aggressions on our seamen. Previously, by a letter from our 
negotiators, information had been received, that they had it in their 
power to sign such a treaty ; and in return the President had ap- 
prised them that should it be forwarded, it could not be ratified, and 
recommended a resumption of negotiations for inserting the stipula- 
tion in question. The treaty came to hand exactly in the exception- 
able shape in which the administration had predetermined against 
its acceptance. The President rejected it, on his oiv7i responsibil- 
ity, and transmitted instructions to put the treaty into an acceptable 
form, if practicable ; otherwise, to back out of the negotiation as well 
as they could, letting it die away insensibly. 

Besides the abandonment of the principle which was the great 
object of the extraordinary mission, there were other material ob- 
jections to the treaty, which abundantly justified the President in re- 
jecting it without consulting the opinions of the Senate. The Brit- 
ish commissioners appeared to have screwed every article as far as 
it would bear, to have surrendered nothing, and taken every thing. 
There was but a single article, the expunging of which would have 
left such a preponderance of evil in all the others, as to have made 
it infinitely worse than no treaty ; and even that article admitted 
only our right to enjoy the indirect colonial trade, during the pre- 



440 LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

aent hostilities. If peace was made that year, and war resumed 
the next, the benefit of this stipulation was gone, and yet we were 
bound for ten years, to pass no non-importation or non-intercourse 
laws, nor take any other measures to restrain the usurpations of the 
' Leviathan of the ocean.' And to crown the whole, a protestation 
was annexed by the British Ministers, at the time of the signature, 
the eflect of which was to leave that government free to consider it 
a treaty or no treaty, according to their own convenience, while it 
bound the United States finally and unconditionally. 

This proceeding of the President was considered a mighty and 
a fatal error by the opponents of the administration ; and many 
sensible republicans even, were inclined to the opinion that he should 
have consulted the co-ordinate branch of the treaty-making power, 
on the question of rejection. But the Constitution has made the 
concurrence of both branches necessary to the confirmation, not to 
the rejection of a treaty ; and where that instrument has confided in- 
dependent matters to either department of government, it is both the 
right and duty of such department, to decide independently as to the 
com'se it ought to pursue. Mr. Jefferson acted upon this construc- 
tion ; and the same principle has been recognized, in repeated in- 
stances,, under both federal and repubhcan administrations. The 
leading principle of the constitution evidently is, the independence 
of the legislature, executive, and judiciary, of each other ; and the ut- 
most jealousy of this principle should be exercised by each, to prevent 
either of the others from becoming a despotic branch. This was the 
deliberate opinion of Mr. Jefferson, on which he always acted, and 
declared he would ever act, and maintain it with the powers of the 
government, against any control which might be attempted by the 
judiciary or legislature, in subversion of his right to move independ- 
ently in his peculiar province. Examples in which the position 
has been maintained, sufficient to establish its soundness, have 
abounded in the practice of the government. The most pointed 
and conspicuous instances are stated by Mr. Jefferson in the fol- 
lowing extract of a letter to Judge Roane, in 1819. 

" My construction of the constitution is very different from that 
you quote. It is that each department is truly independent of the 
others, and has an equal right to decide for itself what is the mean- 
ing of the constitution in the cases submitted to its action ; and es- 
pecially, where it is to act ultimately and without appeal. I will ex- 
plain myself by examples, which, having occurred while I was in 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 441 

office, are better known to me, and the principles which governed 
them. 

"A legislature had passed the sedition law. The federal comls 
had subjected certain individuals to its penalties, of fine and impris- 
onment. On coming into office, I released these individuals by the 
power of pardon committed to executive discretion, which could nev- 
er be more properly exercised than where citizens were suffering 
without the authority of law, or, which was equivalent, under a law 
unauthorized by the constitution, and therefore null. In the case 
of Marbury and Madison, the federal judges declared that commis- 
sions, signed and sealed by the President, were valid, although not 
delivered. I deemed delivery essential to complete a deed, which, 
as long as it remains in the hands of the party, is as yet no deed, it 
is in posse only, but not in esse, and I withheld delivery of the com- 
missions. They cannot issue a mandamus to the President or le- 
gislature, or to any of their officers.* When the British treaty of 
180- arrived, without any provision against the impressment of our 
seamen, I determined not to ratify it. The Senate thought I should 
ask their advice. I thought that would be a mockery of them, when 
I was predetermined against following it, should they advise its rati- 
fication. The constitution had made their advice necessary to con- 
firm a treaty, but not to reject it. This has been blamed by some ; 
but I have never doubted its soundness. In the cases of two per- 
sons, antenati, under exactly similar circumstances, the federal 
court had determined that one of them (Duane) was not a citizen ; 
the House of Representatives nevertheless determined that the other 
(Smith of South Carolina) was a citizen, and admitted him to his 
seat in their body. Duane was a republican, and Smith a federal- 
ist, and these decisions were during the federal ascendency." 

The opinions of the President on the subject of the Mavy, were 
not, perhaps, such as have been generally approved ; though it is 
certain they have been greatly misunderstood and misrepresented. 
Great apprehensions were entertained by the federal party that Mr. 
Jefferson would annihilate the whole marine establishment ; but 
they were totally discredited by the event. His very first act, after 
having executed the law passed under his predecessor, for the sale 
of certain vessels and reducing the number of our naval officers, was 
to fit out a squadron for the Mediterranean, to resist a threatened 
aggression from Tripoli ; and this force, subsequently increased from 
time to time, by his recommendations, was the means of effecting the 
triumphant suppression of Algerine piracy. He afterwards recom- 
mended the construction of some additional vessels of strength, to be 

* The constitution controlling the common law in this particular. 

38* 



442 LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

ill readiness for the first moment of war, provided they could be pre- 
served from decay, and perpetual expense, by being kept in ordinary. 
But the majority of the Legislature were opposed to any augmenta- 
tion of the navy ; and none consec^uently was made. This cir- 
cumstance is worthy of notice, as illustrative of the fact that Mr. 
Jefferson was less hostile to " the wooden walls of Themistocles" 
than the great body of his supporters. " I know," says a gentle- 
man* who executed the duties of that department for some time, 
" that no man was a greater friend to the navy than Mr. Jeffer- 
son. His acts brought it into notice — its own gallantry and bravery 
have done the rest — it now occupies a proud station in the eyes of 
the world. The bravery displayedby the Mediterranean squadron, 
in the war with Tripoli, raised the American character in Europe, 
and gave to our officers confidence in themselves. By affording 
tiieni much instruction and an opportunity of acquiring a practical 
knowledge of their profession, it prepared them for a future contest, 
in which they crowned themselves and their country with glory^ — 
fought their way to popularity at home, to the admiration of the 
world, and to the affections of their countrymen." It is moreover 
generally admitted, that the efforts of Mr. Jefferson, while in Paris, 
to fotm a perpetual alliance of the principal European powers against 
the Barbary States, and subsequently, while Secretary of State, to 
induce the administration to dispatch a force into the Mediterranean 
adequate to the protection of our commerce, laid the first foundations 
of the American navy. Upon this point, there is extant the authori- 
ty of a gentleman, whose knowledge of the subject enabled him to 
pronounce an opinion which will not be questioned. The following 
letter from John Adams to Mr. Jefferson, in 1822, with the answer 
of the latter armexed, places the history of the American navy in 
such a light, as ought to go far towards removing the injurious mis- 
apprehensions which have prevailed on the subject. 

'^ I have long entertained scruples about writing this letter, upon 
a subject of some delicacy. But old age has overcome them at last. 

" You remember the four sliips ordered by Congress to be built, 
and the four captains appointed by Washington, Talbot, and Trux- 
ton, and Barry, &c. to carry an ambassador to Algiers, and protect 
our commerce in the Mediterranean. I have always imputed this 

* Samuel Smith. 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 443 

measure to you ; for several reason?. First, because you frequently 
proposed it to me while we were at Paris, negotititing together lor 
peace with the Barbary powers. Secondly, because I knew that 
Washington and Hamilton were not only indifferent about a navy, 
but averse to it. There was no Secretary of the Navy ; only four 
Heads of department. You were Secretary of State ; Hamilton, 
Secretary of the Treasury ; Knox, Secretary of War ; and I be- 
lieve Bradford was Attorney General. I have alwa3^s suspected 
that you and Knox were in favor of a navy. If Bradford was so, 
the majority was clear. But Washington, I am confident, was 
against it in his judgment. But his attachment to Knox, and his 
deference to your opinion, for I know he had a great regard for you, 
might induce him to decide in favor of you and Knox, even though 
Bradford united with Hamilton in opposition to you. That Hamil- 
ton was averse to the measure, I have personal evidence ; for while 
it was pending, he came in a hurry and a fit of impatience to make 
a visit to me. He said, he was likely to be called upon for a large 
sum of money to build ships of war, to fight the Algerines, and he 
asked my opinion of the measure. I answered him that I was clear- 
ly in favor of it. For I had always been of opinion, from the com- 
mencement of the Revolution, that a navy was the most powerful, 
the safest, and the cheapest national defence for this country. My 
advice, therefore, was, that as much of the revenue as could possibly 
be spared, should be applied to the building and equipping of ships. 
The conversation was of some length, but it was manliest in his 
looks and in his air, that he was disgusted at the measure, as well as 
at the opinion that I had expressed. 

" Mrs. Knox not long since wrote a letter to Doctor Waterhouse, 
requesting him to procure a commission for her son, in the navy ; 
' that navy,' says her ladyship, ' of which his father was the parent.' 
' For,' says she, ' I have frequently heard General Washington say 
to my husband, the navy was your child.' I have always believed 
it to be Jefferson's child, though Knox may have assisted in usher- 
ing it into the world. Hamilton's hobby was the army. That 
Washington was averse to a navy, I had full proof from his own 
lips, in many different conversations, some of them of length, in 
which he always insisted that it was only building and arming ships 
for the English. ' iSi quid novisti rectius isiis, candidus imper- 
ii ; si no?i, his titere ?necum.^" 

Mr. Jefferson's reply : 

" I have racked my memory and ransac|ced my papers, to enable 
myself to answer the inquiries of your favor of October the 15th ; 
but to little purpose. My papers furnish me nothing, my memory, 
generalities only. I know that while 1 was in Europe, and anx- 
ious about the fate of our seafaring men, for some of whon?, then 



444 LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

ill captivity in Algiers, we were treating, and all were in like dan- 
ger. I formed, undoubtingly, the -opinion that our government, as 
soon as. practicable, should provide a naval force sufficient to keep 
the Barbary States in order ; and on this subject we communicated 
together, as you observe. When I returned to the United States 
and took part in the administration under General Washington, I 
constantly maintained that opinion ; and in December, 1790, took 
advantage of a reference to me from the first Congiess which met 
after I was in office, to report in fayor of a force sufficient for the 
protection of our Mediterranean commerce ; and I laid before them 
an accia-ate statement of the whole Barbary force, public and private. 
I think General Washington approved of building vessels of war to 
that extent. General Knox, I know, did. But what was Colonel 
Hamilton's opinion, I do not in the least remember. Your recollec- 
tions on that subject are certainly corroborated by his known anxi- 
eties for a close connection with Great Britain, to which l\e might 
apprehend danger from collisions between their vessels and ours. 
Randolph was then Attorney General ; but his opinion on the ques- 
tion I also entirely forget. Some vessels of war were accordingly 
built and sent into the Mediterranean. Tlie additions to these in 
your time, I need not note to you, who are well known to have ev- 
er been an advocate for the wooden walls of Themistocles. Some 
of those you added, were sold under an act of Congress passed while 
you were in office. I thought, afterwards, that the public safety 
might require some additional vessels of strength, to be prepared and 
in readiness for the first moment of a war, provided they could be 
preserved against the decay which is unavoidable if kept in the wa- 
ter, and clear of the expense of officers and men. With this view 
I proposed that they should be built in dry docks, above the level of 
the tide waters, and covered with roofs. I further advised, that pla- 
ces for these docks should be selected where there was a command 
of water on a high level, as that of the Tiber at Washington, by 
which the vessels might be floated out, on the principle of a lock. 
But the majority of the legislature was against any addition to the 
navy, and the minority, although for it in judgment, voted against 
it on a principle of opposition. We are now, I understand, building 
vessels to remain on the stocks, under shelter, until wanted, when 
they will be launched and finished. On my plan they could be in 
service at an hour's notice. On this, the finishing, after launching, 
will be a work of time. 

" This is all I recollect about the origin and progress of our navy. 
That of the late war, certainly raised our rank and character among 
nations. Yet a navy is a very expensive engine. It is admitted, 
that in ten or twelve years a vessel goes to entire decay ; or, if kept 
in repair, costs as much as would build a new one : and that a na- 
tion who could count on twelve or fifteen years' of peace, would gain 
by burning its navy and building a hew one in time. Its extent, 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSOX. 



445 



therefore, must be governed by circumstances. Since my proposi- 
tion for a force adequate to the piracies of the Mediterranean, a sim- 
ilar necessity has arisen in our own seas for considerable addition to 
that force. Indeed, I wish we could have a convention with the na- 
val powers of Europe, for them to keep down the pirates of the 
Mediterranean, and the slave ships on the coast of Africa, and for 
us to perform, the same duties for the society of nations in our seas. 
In this way, those collisions would be avoided between the vessels 
of war of different nations, which beget wars and constitute the 
weightiest objection to navies. I salute you with constant affection 
and respect." 

It appears that the only difference of opinion between these illus- 
trious Statesmen on the subject of a Navy, was as to the extent to 
which it should be carried. Mr. Adams was for a heavy establish- 
ment, ready at all times, and sufficient to compete with that of the 
most powerful nation on the water, the moment it should become 
our adversary. Mr. Jefferson thought that its extent should always 
be regulated by circumstances ; and this is unquestionably the re- 
publican doctrine. Being a very expensive engine, both in its first 
creation, and in its maintenance against the rapid and unavoidable 
ravages of exposure, he was for restraining it in time of peace to a 
force sutTicient only for the protection of our commerce ; and for 
confining all naval preparations against the contingency of war, 
to the building of ships in dry docks, where they could be kept free 
from decay, from the expense of officers and men, and ready at 
any moment for actual service. 

In addition to the incompetency of our resources to maintain a 
powerful navy, other and weighty objections existed at this time, 
which always had great influence on the mind of the President. 
The necessary midtiplication of those habitual violations of natur- 
al right, in the form of impressiTients, which affected him with 
such sincere horror ; the perpetual coUisions from other sources, fit- 
ted to embroil us continually with the nations whom we could in- 
deed master on the land, were sensible reasons against exhausting 
our strength on a navy, and transferring the scene of combat to a 
theatre where the enemy were omnipotent and we were nothing. 
To these might perhaps* be added, equality in the distribution of 
the public burthen, a favorite principle of administration with the 
President. One portion of the Union, whose contributions were 
least, would be elevated to greatness and wealth, to the depression 



446 LIFE, WRITINGS; AND OPINIONS 

oi another portion, whose contrilnitions were greatest, and pecunia- 
ry remuneration comparatively httle. If there was error in this 
consideration, it was founded in a tremulous anxiety for the good 
of the whole, rather than an undue influence of sectional feeling, 
which scarcely found a place even in the credulity of his enemies. 
The plan for the establishment of diy docks, in pursuance of 
his naval system, was always a fruitful theme of raillery and repro- 
bation against the President ; and yet, it is somewhat surprising 
that the principle should have since been sanctioned by the govern- 
ment, and have obtained the concurrent approbation of the greatest 
maritime powers in Europe. A plan, agreeing in its chief features 
with that of Mr. Jefferson, though inferior to it in others, has since 
l^een adopted, both in this country and in Europe, for preventing 
ships from early decay, by keeping them out of the water, and 
protecting them from the weather, The most prodigal and aristo- 
cratic governments on the globe have now become converts to a 
practice, which, it was alleged, originated in the extreme of parsi- 
mony and pusillanimity. 

The institution of gun-boats, which composed a part of the naval 
system recommended by the President, has received an unlimited 
measure of condemnation at the hands of his political opponents. 
In this, however, as in many other cases, it is but reasonable lenity 
to conclude, that a great proportion of the clamor and denunciation 
originated in a wide misconception of the views of administration, 
of which they could only command detached parts, through an 
awfully exaggerating medium. The fundamental error of the op- 
position, in the present case, arose from a misunderstanding of the 
object for which this species of naval armament was designed. 
It is evident, that the President relied on gun-boats to the exclusion 
of ships of \Var, only in time of peace, and as supplementary to 
them, on the occurrence of war, when they would prove an inval- 
uable bulwark to all the vulnerable points of the country, until the 
ships could be let down from the stocks, and put in readiness. 
They were principally intended, in connection with land batteries, 
as fortifications of our harbors and sea-port towns, either in time of 
general peace, or when we were placed in the situation of neutrals ; 
and even in time of war, they were more adequate to this purpose 
of defence than unwieldy frigates and ships of the line. In this 
view, they formed a necessary and ingenious part of that economi- 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 447 

cal system of national defence, which he designed to substitute in 
place of the previously contemplated establishments. ' The system 
of fortifications projected by the preceding administration, consider- 
ing the number of harbors, which from their situation and impor- 
tance were entitled to defence, and the estimates already made of 
the fortifications planned for some of tliem, could not have been 
completed on a moderate scale for less than fifty millions of dollars, 
nor manned in time of war with less than fifty thousand men, and 
in peace, two thousand. And when completed, they would have 
availed little ; because all military men agree, that whenever a ves- 
sel may pass a fort without tacking under her guns, which is the 
.case at all our sea -port towns, she may be annoyed more or less, 
according to the advantages of the position, but can never be pre- 
vented. Our own experience during the revolutionary war proved 
this on various occasions.' These Avere the views and reasons, in 
part, which decided the President on adopting the institution of 
gun-boats, as a substitute in peace, in war an effective auxiliary. 
The outlines of the plan are exhibited in the following statement 
of the President. 

" If we cannot hinder vessels from entering our harbors, we 
should turn our attention to the putting it out of their power to lie, 
or come to, before a town, to injure it. Two means of doing this 
may be adopted in aid of each other. 1. Heavy cannon on trav- 
elling carriages, which m.a}^ be moved to any point on the bank 
or beach most convenient for dislodging the vessel. A sufficient 
number of these should be lent to each sea-port town, and their 
militia trained to them. The executive is authorized to do this ; 
it has been done in a smaller degree, and will now be done more 
competently. 

" 2. Having cannon on floating batteries or boats, which may be 
so stationed as to prevent a vessel entering the harbor, or force her, 
after entering, to depart. There are about fifteen harbors in the 
United States, wliich ought to be in a state of substantial defence. 
The whole of these would require, according to the best opinions, 
two hundred and forty gun- boats. Their cost was estimated by 
Captain Rodgers at two thousand dollars each ; but w^e had better 
say. four thousand dollars. The whole would cost one million of 
dollars. But we should allow ourselves ten years to complete it, 
unless circumstances should force it sooner. There are three situa- 
tions in which the gun-boat may be. 1. Hauled up under a shed^ 
in readiness to be launched and manned by the seamen and mili- 
tia of the town on short notice. In this situation she costs nothing 
but an enclosure, or a centinel to see that no mischief is done to 



448 LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

ber. 2. Afloat, and with men enough to navigate her in harbor 
and take care of her, but depending on receiving her crew from 
the town on short warning. In this situation, her annual expense 
is about two thousand dollars, as by an official estimate at the end 
of this letter. 3. Fully manned for action. Her annual expense 
in this situation is about eight thousand dollars, as per estimate 
subjoined. When there is general peace, we should probably keep 
about six or seven afloat in the second situation ; their annual ex- 
pense twelve to fourteen thousand dollars ; the rest all hauled up. 
When France and England are at war, we should keep, at the ut 
most, twenty-five in the second situation, their annual expense fifty 
thousand dollars. When we should be at war ourselves, some of 
them would probably be kept in the third situation, at an annual 
expense of eight thousand dollars ; but how many, must depend 
on the circumstances of the war. We now possess ten, built and 
building. It is the opinion of those consulted, that fifteen more 
would enable us to put ever)'' harbor under our view into a respect- 
able condition ; and that this should limit the views of the present 
year. This would rec[uire an appropriation of sixty thousand dol- 
lars, and I suppose that the best way of limiting it, without declar- 
ing the number, as perhaps that sum would ])uild more." 

So much for the bruited system of fortification contemplated by 
the establishment of gun-boats, — the most simple, economical, and, 
when relied on for the strict purpose of its institution only, the 
most eflfective system of fortification ever yet devised by the wisdom 
of man. Its efficacy for the defence of harbors, may be estimated 
in part, from that of galleys, formerly much used, but less power- 
ful, more costly in their construction and maintenance, and requir- 
ing more men. In the Mediterranean, the superiority of gun-boats 
for harbor service, has been eminently illustrated by experience. 
Algiers is particularly known to have owed to a great supply of 
these vessels, the safety of its city, since the epoch of their con- 
struction. Before that, it had been repeatedly insulted and injured. 
The effect of gun-boats in the neighborhood of Gibraltar is well 
known, and how much they were used both in the attack and de- 
fence of that place, during a former war. The remarkable action, 
between the Russian flotilla of gun-boats and galleys, and a Turk- 
ish fleet of ships of the line and frigates, in the Liman sea, in 1788, 
is matter of historical record. The latter, commanded by their most 
celebrated Admiral, were completely defeated, and several of their 
ships of the line destroyed. There is not, it is believed, a maritime 
nation in Europe, which has not adopted the same species of arma- 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 4iy 

ment for the defence of some of its harbors ; the English and French 
certainly have ; by the Northern Powers of the continent, whose seas 
are particularly adapted to them, they are still more used ; and it is 
stated,* with much confidence, that the only occasion on which Ad- 
miral Nelson was ever foiled, was by gun-boats at 'Boulogne. 

Daring the first four years of his administration, the opposition to 
the President was continued with unabated fury, though greatly di- 
minished and constantly diminishing in numerical strength. The 
measures pursued by the General government for the amelioration 
of the public affairs, were so palpably wise and salutary, as to have 
united in its -support, within that period, all descriptions of people 
who v.^ere not monarchists in principle. Those v/ho were such, re- 
mained outstanding in all the tempest uousaess of their indignation 
against the republican ascendency. This grade of politicians, the 
President had from the beginning abandoned, as incurables, and de- 
clared he would never turn an inch out of his way to reconcile them. 
He considered them as utterly irreclaimable, to be taken care of m v, 
mad-house if necessary, and on motives of charity. They were 
principally confined to the New England and Middle States, power- 
ful in wealth, but feeble in numbers, and sinking daily in the pub- 
lic estimation and influence over their satellites, from the dissonance 
of their principles with the sentiments of the overwhelming majori- 
iy of the nation. They were astounded at the sudtlenness and ir- 
reslstibleness of the desertion ; but they had committed themselves 
too far to retract, and the violence of their opposition increased with 
its desperation. They brooded over their disappointments, liewail- 
ed their dilapidated greatness, gave vent to their angry discontents, 
through the newspapers under their control, and made as much 
noise as if they composed the whole nation. The old and insane 
aspersions of French influence, of jacobinism, of atheism, of libertin- 
ism, of seduction, of adultery, of cowardice, of treason, of fraud, 
robbery, &c. &c. were daily disgorged from the press and the pulpit ; 
new calumnies, of kindred audacity, were copiously invented, anddis- 
seminated with malignant industry. 'The clergy who had missed 
their union with the State, the Anglomen who had missed theirunion 
with Great Britain, the political adventurers v/ho had lost the chance 
of swindling and plunder in the waste of public money,' and the Au- 



* Soutiiern Review, February No. 1830. 

39 



450 LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

gean herd of quondam officers, who had been stript of the power to over- 
awe and strangle the freedom of elections, kept up an interminable 
and obstreperous bawling, Irom the moment of the breaking up of 
their sanctuary, until the last hope of its recovery yielded to inextin- 
guishable despair. Every measure of the administration, however 
meritorious, and demonstratively beneficial, great and wise, was re- 
probated with indiscriminate condemnation ; and a thousand meas- 
ures, which were never meditated, were weekly delated to the pub- 
lic, merely to found a text and pretext for calumniating commenta- 
ries. " I shall take no other revenge," the President wrote to a 
friend, " than, by a steady pursuit of economy and peace, and by 
the estabhshment of republican principles in substance and in form, 
to sink federalism into an abyss from which there shall be no resur- 
rection for it." The following extract from a letter of the President 
to Judge Sullivan, of Massachusetts, gives a forcible idea of the licen- 
tiousness of the press, at this period, and of his remarkable firmness 
under it. 

'" You have indeed received the federal unction of lying and slan- 
dering. But who has not ? Who will ever again come into emi- 
nent office, unanointed with this chrism ? It seems to be fixed that 
falsehood and calumny are to be their ordinary engines of opposi- 
tion ; engines which will not be entirely without effect. The circle 
of characters equal to the first stations is not too large, and will be 
lessened by the voluntary retieat of those whose sensibilities ars 
stronger than their confidence in the justice of public opinion. I 
certainly have known, and still know, characters eminently quali- 
fied for the most exalted trusts, who could not bear up against the 
brutal hackings and hewings of these heroes of Billingsgate. I may 
say, from intimate knowledge, that wCshould have lost the services 
of the greatest character of our country, had he been assailed with 
the degree of abandoned licentiousness now practised. The torture 
he felt under rare and slight attacks, proved that under those of 
which the federal bands have shown themselves capable, he would 
have thrown up the helm in a burst of indignation. Yet this ef- 
fect of sensibiUty must not be yielded to. If we suffer ourselves to be 
frightened from our post by mere lying, surely the enemy Avill use 
that weapon ; for what one so cheap to those of whose system of 
politics morality makes no part ? The patriot, like the Christian, 
must learn that to bear revilings and persecutions is a part of his 
duty ; and in proportion as the trial is severe, firmness under it be- 
comes more requisite and praiseworthy. It requires, indeed, self- 
command. But that will be fortified in proportion as the calls for 
its exercise are repeated. In this I am persuaded we shall have the 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 



451 



benefit of your good example. To the other falsehoods they have 
brought forward, should they add, as you expect, insinuations of 
want of confidence in you from the administration generally, or my- 
self particularly, it will, like their other falsehoods, produce in the 
public mind a contrary inference.'^ 

Driven to the last degree of desperation, and restrained by pride 
from acquiescing under the government, the rebellious temper of the 
opposition worked so convulsively as to force them at last into trea- 
sonable combinations for dismembering the Union. Horrible and 
painful as the retrospection may seem, it is the duty of impartial 
history to record, as a solemn admonition to future ages, that there 
were not wanting, even in this day of unexampled national pros- 
perity, hearts to conceive and pens to advocate, a separation of the 
Union into Northern and Southern confederacies. The reader will 
recollect, with what severe and overpowering reasoning Mr. Jeffer- 
son rebuked a similar suggestion from a republican quarter, druing 
the afflicting crisis of '98 — '99, while laboring under the oppressions 
and persecutions of the Eastern monarchical ascendency.* The 
plan of the opposition now v.^as, to divide the republicans, join the 
minority, and by effecting a secession of the Eastern and part of 
the Middle States, to establish a separate government, under a he- 
terogeneoiLs amalgamation of federalism and republicanism. Nor 
was this stratagem 'wholly unsuccessful ; many republicans were 
entrapped into it, which produced alarming schisms, in some States, 
among the supporters of the government. The following extracts 
from the correspondence of the President, in 1804, relative to this 
subject, are pregnant with instruction not inapplicable to the present 
generation. 

To G. Grangicr. — " In our last conversation you mentioned a 
federal scheme afloat, of forming a coalition between the federalists 
and republicans, of what .they called the seven eastern States. The 
idea was new to me, and after time for reflection, I had no opportuni- 
ty of conversing with you again. The federalists know that, eo no- 
7?iine, they are gone for ever. Their object, therefore, is, how to re- 
turn into power under some other form. Undoubtedly they have 
but one means, which is to divide the republicans, join the minority, 
and barter with them for the cloak of their name. I say, joiri the 
minority ; because the majority of the republicans, not needing 
them, will not buy them. The minority, having no other means 

*See page 380. 



152 LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

of ruiiiiy the iiiajoiity, will give a price for auxiliaries, and that price 
must be principle. It is true that the federalists, needing their num- 
!:)ers also, must also give a price, and principle is the coin they must 
pay in. TJius a bastard system of ftdero-republicanism will rise 
oa the ruins of the true principles of our revolution. And when 
this party is formed, who will constitute the majority of it, which ma- 
jority is then to dictate ? Certainly the federalists. Thus their 
proposition of putting themselves into gear with the I'cpublican mi- 
nority, is exactly like Roger Sherman's proposition to add Connec- 
ticut to Rhode Island. The idea of forming seven Eastern States is 
moreover clearly to form the basis of a separation of the Union. Is 
it possible that real republicans can be gulled by such a bait ? And 
tor what ? What do tliey wish, that they have not ? Federal meas- 
ures ? That is impossible. Republican measures ? Have they 
them not? Can any one deny, that in all important questions of 
jirinciple, republicanism prevails ? But do they want that their in- 
tiividual will shall govern the majority'? They may purchase the 
gratification of this unjust wish, for a little time, at a great price ; but 
the federalists must not have the passions of otlier men, if, after get- 
ting thus into the seat of power, they suffer themselves to be govern- 
ed by their minority. This minority may say, that whenever they 
relapse into their own principles, they will quit them, and draw the 
ijcat from under them. They n)ay quit them, indeed, but, in the 
mean time, all the venal will have become associated with them, 
and will give them a majority suliicicnt to keep them in place, and 
to enable them to eject the heterogeneous friends by whose aid they 
got again into power. I cannot believe any portion of real repubU- 
cans will entei- into this trap : and if they do, I do not believe they 
can carry with them the mass of their States, advancing so steadih" 
as we see them, to an union of principle with their brethren. It 
will be found in this, as in all other similar cases, that crooked 
schemes will end by overwhelming their authors and coadjutors in 
disgrace, and that he alone who walks strict and upright, and who 
in matters of opinion will be contented that others should be as free 
as himself, and acquiesce when his opinion is fairly overruled, will 
attain his object in the end. And that this may be the conduct of 
us all, 1 oflin- my sincere prayers, as well as for your health and hap- 
piness.'" 

To Doctor Logan. — " I see with infinite pain the blood}' schism 
which has taken place among our friends in Pennsylvania and New 
York, and will prol^ably take place in other States. The main body 
of both sections mean well, but their good intentions will produce 
great public evil. The minority, whichever section shall be the mi- 
nority, will end in coalition with the federalists, and some comprom 
ise of principle ; because these will not sell their aid for nothing. 
Republicanism will thus lose, and royalism gain, some port'on of that 



OF THOBIAS JEFFERSON. 453 

ground which we thought we had rescued to good government. I 
do not express my sense of our misfortunes from any idea that they 
are remediable. I know that the passions of men will take their 
course, that they are not to be controlled but by despotism, and that 
this melancholy truth is the pretext for despotism. The duty of an 
upright administration is to pursue its course steadily, to know noth- 
ing of these family dissensions, and to cherish the good principles of 
both parties. The war ad internecionern which we have waged 
against federalism, has filled our latter times with strife and unhap- 
piness. We have met it, with pain indeed, but with firmness, be- 
cause w^e believed it the last convulsive effort of that Hydra, which 
in earher times we had conquered in the field. But if any degener- 
acy of principle should ever render it necessary to give ascendency to 
one of the rising sections (of republicans) over the other, I thank my 
God it will fall to some other to perform that operation. The only 
cordial I w^ish to carry into my retirement, is the undivided good will 
of all those with whom I have acted." 

It had been Mr. Jefferson's fixed intention, from the moment of 
his entering office, to have retired from the government at the ex- 
piration of his first term ; and he continued to indidge the pleasing 
anticipation untU the ultimate point of time allowed him for a decis- 
ion. But the unmitigable pertinacity of the opposition, which was 
now developing itself in threatening forms, in those inchoate divis- 
ions among the republicans in some States, which, by opening the 
question of a successor, their own folly and the machinations of the 
enemy would find scope and opportunity to consummate, forced his 
continuance in power another term, for the pubhc good ; and the 
multitude of defamatory imputations, on which he had been solemn- 
ly arraigned before the world, required him to appeal once more to 
the tribunal of public opinion, for his own honor, "f sincerely re- 
gret," he wrote to a friend in Massachusetts, " that the unbounded 
calumnies of the federal party have obliged me to throw myself on 
the verdict of my country for trial, my great desire having been to 
retire at the end of the present term, to a life of tmnquillity ; and it 
was my decided purpose when I entered into office. They force my 
continuance. If we can keep the vessel of State as steadily in her 
course for another four years, ray earthly purposes will be accom- 
plished, and I shall be fi-ee to enjoy, as you are doing, my family, my 
farm, and my books." 

The President entertained no doubt of receiving a triumphant 
justification at the hands of his grateful countrymen. The affairs 

39* 



451 LIFE, WRITINGS. AND OPINIONS 

of the nation were progressing in an unparalleled train of prosper- 
ity, internal and external. During the four years of the preceding 
administration, the national debt had increased about four millions 
of dollars, accompanied by excessive loans, on an usurious interest. 
During the three and a half years of Mr. Jefferson's administration, 
he Imd exting-u ished more than thirteen and a half milUons of the 
principal of the pul)lic de!)t, with a greater sum of interest ! which 
was a nettgain, by the republican change, of seventeen and a half 
millions, or two and a half millions more than the whole purchase 
money of Louisiana ! and, proceeding in the same ratio, he would 
have discharged the whole national debt in twelve years more. That 
done, the annual revenue, which was now thirteen millions, and 
would then be twenty-five, would defray the expenses of any war we 
mightbe forced into, without recurrence to new taxes or loans. This 
irreat and fast increasina; icvenue, which had enabled the execu- 
live to double the original possessions of the United States, to extin- 
guish the native title to a boundless extent of soil within their limits, 
to discharge the current expenses of the government, and to appro- 
priate, by a fixed and permanent law, eight millions of dollars annu- 
ally, to the extinguishment of the public debt — the whole of this 
revenue was derived from the consumptio]i of foreign luxuries, by 
those who could afiord to add them to domestic comforts. No far- 
mer, no mechanic, no laborer ever saw a tax-gatherer of the United 
States ; nor was there any borrowing of money. The fruits of this 
golden era of the republic, were a commerce more extended, in pro- 
portion to our population, and an industry more productive, than 
the United States have enjoyed at any other period, before or since. 
Republicanism was re-estabhshed in all its ancient vigor, five sixths 
of the people being cordially aggregated in its support. In such a 
state of things, it was scarcely in human nature to desire a change 
of administration, or to conceive its practicability. 

Though conducted with gieat animosity, the contest hardly de- 
served the name of one, so overwhelming was the majority in favor 
of the existing order of things. Mr. Jefferson was re-elected by a 
vote of one hundred and sixty-two against fourteen. The only 
States which voted for his opponent, Pinckney, were Connecticut 
and Delaware, with two districts in Maryland. George Clinton 
was elected Vice President_ by the same majority over Rufus King. 
The amendment of the Constitution, which in the mean time had 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 455 

taken place, debated the minority from an attempt of the scandalous 
scenes of Febiuaiy, 1801. The unanimity of the vote on the pre 
sent occasion, while it pronounced an incomparixble judgment of ap- 
probation on the character ot the administration, is really unexam- 
pled in the history of the United States, considering the circum- 
stances of the times. The vote subsequently given to Mr. Mom'oe, 
though more nearly unanimous, was much less extraordinary. 
The latter vote was given in a season of dead calm ; the former, 
amid the raging fury of the tempest. Every other Chief Magistrate, 
also, except General Jackson, has rode into office on the same tide of ■ 
opinion that sustained his predecessor. They alone on an opposing 
one ; and in four years Mr. Jefferson amalgamated both currents in 
his favor, in defiance of every obstruction which the ingenuity of 
man could devise. 

On the 4th of March, 1805, Mr. Jefferson re-entered upon the 
duties of the Chief Magistracy, for another term. The same ab- 
sence of all parade and ostentation, which characterized the former 
inauguration, was rigorously observed on the present occasion. As 
the first inaugural address of the restorer of republican government, 
had been appropriately all promise and profession, so the second was 
triumphantly all performance, being a niodest recapitulation, in 
very succinct form, of the prominent transactions of his administra- 
tion, in pursuance of the principles which he had inculcated from 
the beginning. How rarely does it happen to civil rulers to exhibit 
a faithful exemplification in office, of the professions which carried 
them into it ! And what an unanswerable commentary does this 
rare occurrence pronounce, on the honesty and conscientious devo- 
tion to principle of the republican party of the United States. For 
the first time, perhaps, in the history of the world, was seen a body 
of men raised to power, steadily and scrupulously abiding by the 
principles they had professed during their exclusion ; and, in self- 
denying obedience to this purpose, laboring to diminish the amount 
of patronage and influence, which they received from their predeces- 
sors.* 

To the general character above stated of the second inaugural 
address of the President, there were two exceptions, in which addi- 
tional principles were inculcated. The crusade preached against 

* Warden's History of the United States. 



^ 



456 LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

philosophy hy the disciples of steady habits, at that em, induced 
him to dwell at considerable length in illustrating its effects with 
the Indians. The craft and iniluence of these seditious intruders,, 
operating upon the prejudices and ignorance of the Indians, had al- 
ways embarrassed the general government in its efforts to change- 
their pursuits, and ameliorate their unhappy condition. " These 
persons," said he, "inculcate a sanctimonious reverence for the cus- 
toms of their ancestors ; that whatsoever they did must be done 
through all time ; that reason is a false guide, and to advance un- 
der its council in their physical, moral, or political condition, is per- 
ilous innovation ; that their duty is to remain as their Creator 
made them, ignorance being safety, and knowledge full of dan-, 
ger ; in short, my friends, among them is seen the action and 
counteraction of good sense and bigotry ; they too, have their anti- 
philosophers, who iind an interest in keeping things in Uieir pres- 
ent state, who dread reformation, and exert all their faculties to 
maintain the ascendency of habit over the duty of improving our 
reason and obeying its mandates." 

The other exception aboveraentioned, in which new principles 
were advanced, regarded the appropriation of the surplus revenue 
of the nation, after the final redemption of the public debt. The 
epoch being not far distant, when that propitious event might be 
safely calculated to happen, the President thought it a fit occasion 
to suggest his views on the most eligible arrangement and disposal 
of the public contributions, upon the basis which would then be 
presented. Should the impost duties be suppressed, and that ad» 
vantage given to foreign over domestic manufactures ? Should they 
be diminished, and upon what principles? Oi" should they be con- 
tinued, and applied to the purposes of internal improvement, educa- 
tion &c. ? were questions which he submitted to the consideration 
of the people, and subsequently urged upon the attention of the 
Legislature in his official communications. They are questions 
which agitate the present authorities of the government, to a pecu- 
liar degree, and are becoming extremely interesting to the nation.. 
The President did not hesitate to recommend, that the revenue,, 
when liberated by the redemption of the public debt, should, by a 
just repartition among the States, and a corresponding amendment 
of the constitution, be applied, in time of peace, to livers, canals,, 
roads, arts, manufactures, education, and other great objects of pub- 



OF THOMAS JEFFEliSON. 457 

4 

lie utility within each State ; and in time of war, should injustice 
by ourselves oi others ever produce war, to meet the accumulated 
expenses of such a crisis from year to year, to w^hich th.e superabun- 
dant and current resources would be fully adequate, without en- 
croaching on the rights of future generations by burthening them 
with the debts of the past. War would then be but a suspension, 
for the time being, of useful works; and the restoi ation . of peace, a 
return to the progress of improvement, luitrammeled by pecimiary 
embarrassments. Instead, therefore, of reducing the revenue aris- 
ing from the consumption of foreign articles, to the actual amount 
necessary for the current expenses of the government, the President 
recommended its continuance, wntli certain modifications, and ap- 
plication to works of internal improvement. On some articles of 
more general and necessary use, he advised a suppression of the 
impost ; but the great mass of the articles on which duties were 
paid, were foreign luxuries, purchased by those who were rich 
enough to use them without feeling the tax. Their patriotism cer- 
tainly, he thought, would prefer a continuance of the general s)'s- 
tem, which, while not oppressive to themselves, would prove im- 
mensely advantageous to the nation, by furnishing the means of 
public education, roads, rivers, canals, and such other objects of 
public improvement as it might be thought proper to add to the con- 
stitutional enumeration of federal powers. By these operations, 
new channels of communication would be opened between the 
States, the lines of separation be made to disappear, their interests 
be identified, and their union cemented by new and indissoluble ties. 
Impressed with tiie eternal and inseparable connection betvreen lib- 
erty and knowledge, he placed education among the first and wor- 
thiest of the objects of public care ; ' not with a view to take its or- <- ^ 
dinary branches out of the hands of private enterprise, which man- / 
aged so much better all the concerns to v;l)ich it was equal : but . 
for the purpose of enlarging its sphere, by supplying those sciences, S 
which, though rarely called for, were yet necessary to complete the ' 
circle, all the parts of which contributed to the improvement of the / 
nation, and some of them to its preservation.' In pursuance of this 
idea, he recommended to the consideration of Congress the estab- 
lishment of a National University, with such an extension of the 
federal powers as should bring it legitimately within their jurisdic- 
tion. He believed an amendment of the constitution, bv consent 



45S LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

of the States, necessary, as well for this, as for the other objects of 
pubhc improvement, which he recommended ; because they were 
not among those enumerated in the constitution, and to which it 
permitted the public money to be applied. So early as 1806, he in- 
formed Congress, that by the time the State Legislatures should have 
deliberated upon the appropriate amendment to the constitution, the 
necessary laws be passed, and arrangements made for their execu- 
tion, tlie requisite amount of funds would be on hand, and without 
employment. He contributed liberally to the establishment of the 
proposed institution, permitted his name to be placed at the head of 
it, and used every exertion to carry it into operation ; but the germ 
was unhappily blighted by sectional jealousies. 

The pre-eminently happy and advantageous train in which the 
affairs of the nation were established, within the President's first 
term, left little for the residue of his administration to accomplish, 
except to maintain peace and neutrality amidst the agitating con- 
vulsions of a warring world ; and to rescue the Union from one of 
the most nefarious and gigantic conspiracies recorded in mod- 
ern history. The measures called into action by these two for- 
midable dilliculties, developed two opposite extremes of character in 
the government, which were so admirably adapted each to its 
respective exigency, as to have worked out for the country an al- 
most supernatural deliverance. The extraordinary forbearance and 
moderation manifested under the pressure of the external crisis, 
were as necessary to our safety, as the energy and promptitude with 
which the inteinal enemy was crushed, and laid prostrate at the feet 
of government, with all the embryo honm's of rebellion on his head. 

The traitorous conspiracy of Burr would scarcely have fallen with- 
in tile purview of these outlines, were it not for the strong case pre- 
sented in his acquital, in addition to many others that have since 
occurred, in which the predominance of federalism in the Judiciary, 
covered and emboldened Ijy its irresponsibility, has set at deiiaucB 
the Executive, the Legislature, and the general sense of the nation. 
]Never was there an occurrence in which the innate force of (his gov- 
ernment was so eminently proved, as in the sudden suppression of 
this gigantic treason, nor in which its avenging powers were so com- 
pletely battled, as in the protection from condign punishment, of the 
arch mover and perpetrator. The conspiracy was one of the most 
flasritious of which history will ever furnish an example ; and there 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. ^ 459 

was probably not a peison in the United States who entertained a 
doubt of the real guilt of the accused. His purpose was to separate 
the western States from the Union, annex Mexico to them, estab- 
lish a monarchical government, with himself at the head, and thus 
provide an example and an instrument for the subversion of our 
liberties. The American Cataline, cool, sagacious and wary, like 
his ancient prototype, had probably engaged one thousand men to 
follow his fortunes, without letting them know his projects, further 
Uian by assurances that the government approved of them. The 
great majority of his adherents took his assertion for this, but with 
those who would not, and were unwilling to embark in his enter- 
prises without the approbation of the government, the following 
stratagem was practised. A forged letter, purporting to be from the 
Secretary of War, was made to express his approbation, and to say 
that the President was absent at Monticello, but that, on his return, 
the enterprise would be sanctioned by him without hesitation. This 
letter was spread open on Burr's table, so as to invite the eye of all 
who entered his room ; and he contrived occasions of sending up 
into his room, those whom he wished to become witnesses of his act- 
ing under sanction. By this means, he avoided exposing himself 
to any liability to prosecution for forgery, while he proved himself a 
master in the arts of the conspirator. The moment the proclama- 
tion of the President appeared, undeceiving his deluded partisans, 
Burr found himself stript of his surreptitious influence, and left with 
about thirty desperadoes only. The people rose in mass, wherever 
he appeared or was suspected to be, and by their energy, the rebel- 
lion was crushed in an instant, without the necessity of employing 
a detachment of the military, except to guard their respective sta- 
tions. His first enterprise was to have seized New Orleans, which 
he supposed would effectually bridle the upper country, reduce it in 
subjection to him, and plant him at the door of Mexico without an 
enemy in the rear. But, on the unfiu4ing the ensigns of the Union 
there was not a single native Creole, and only one American, of 
tliose settled there before we received the possession, but that aban- 
doned his standard, and rallied under the sacred banners of the con- 
stitution. His real partisans were the new emigrants from the Uni- 
ted States and elsewhere, fugitives from justice, disaffected politi- 
cians, and desperate adventurers of all descriptions. The event was 
a happy one. It was always a source of exultation to the President, 



460 LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

inasmuch as it realized his prophetic declaration on assuming the 
helm of public affairs — ' that a republican government was the 
strongest one on earth, and the only one, where every man at the 
call of the law, would fiy to the standard of the law, and would meet 
infractions of the public order, as his own personal concern.' The 
atrocity of the crime, however, and the existence of the most con-* 
elusive proof, compelled him, as it did every other reflecting mind, to 
seek in some other hypothesis than the jealous provisions of the laws 
in favor of the accused, the acquital of this, the greatest of modern 
parricides. The result of the trial astonished the world, and con- 
founded the spectators, from whose minds every doubt had vanish- 
ed, when the investigation was suddenly arrested by the decision of 
the Comt. 

The truth is, the monarchical federalists made Burr's case 
their own, as they did his moral treason in February, 1801, as they 
did the enterprise of Miranda, in 1805, and the insurrectionary plot 
of Henry in 1809, mortified only that he did not succeed in over- 
turning the republic, and introducing their favorite establish- 
ment of a monarchy. The plainest principles of law were perverted 
to rescue the accused from condemnation. The trial was at first 
pressed on rather precipitately, without allowing the requisite time 
and facihties for procuring witnesses, and afterwards arrested, before 
one half of those in actual attendance were examined. Of the one 
hundred and thirty witnesses collected at Richmond, only fifteen 
were examined ; and of these fifteen but a few were permitted to 
disclose any thing implicating the direct agency of Burr. The 
most material testimony was suppressed. All revealments were 
evaded by the accomplices, who betrayed a wonderful peculiarity of 
confidence in ulterior security, by the contemptuous rejection of 
pardons from the Executive. The very verdict of the jury, ' that 
the accused was not proved guilty hy any evidence submitted to 
thern^ was a virtual acknowledgement, that the defect was in 
the application of the law, or the law itself, not in the evidence 
of guilt ; and this verdict was ordered to be recorded simply, 
'■ Not guilty.' Indeed, all the abuses and despotic consequences of 
tlie immovable tenure of the Judiciary — except by process of im- 
peachment — and their consequent irresponsibility to any practicable 
control, were conspicuously demonstrated on the present memorable 
occasion. They were so palpably enormous, and exposed to the pub- 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 461 

lie eye, as to excite a deep sensibility through the republican body 
of the nation. No further confirmation was wanting to fix the 
President unalterably in the opinion, long entertained by him, that , \ 

in this defect of the Constitution lurked the germ, which, unless \? 

timely eradicated, was destined to destroy the happy equilibrium of 
powers in the General government, and between the General and 
State governments. In a letter to Wm. B. Giles, he writes : — 
" If there ever had been an instance in this or the preceding 
administrations, of federal judges so applying principles of law 
as to condemn a federal or acquit a republican offender, I should 
have judged them in the present case with more charity. All 
this, however, will work well. The nation will judge both the 
offender and judges for themselves. If a member of the executive " 

or legislature does wrong, the day is never far distant when the 
people will remove him. They will see then, and amend the error 
in our constitution, which makes any branch independent of the . 

nation. They will see that one of the great co-ordinate branches of 
the government, setting itself in opposition to the other two, and tC' / 
the conniion sense of the nation, proclaims impunity to that class of 
offenders which endeavors to overturn the constitution, and are \ 
themselves protected in it by the constitution itself : for impeach- . 
ment is a farce which will not be tried again. If their protection of 
Burr produces this amendment, it will do more good than his con- 
demnation would have done. Against Burr, personally, I never 
had one hostile sentiment. I never, indeed, thought him an honest; 
frank-dealing man, but considered him as a crooked gun, or other 
perverted machine, whose aim or shot you could never be sure of 
Still, while he possessed the confidence of the nation, I thought it my 
duty to respect in him their confidence, and to treat him as if he de 
served it : and if his punishment can be commuted now for an use- 
ful amendment of the constitution, I shall rejoice in it." 

While on the subject of the independence of the Judiciary, it may 
be proper to examine the opinions of Mr. Jefferson at a subsequent 
date, in a more general sense, and under a more dispassionate con- 
templation of the question, than was practicable in the state of sen- 
sibility excited by the particular case of Burr. The tenure of good 
behavior allotted to the federal Judges, was a defect in the Con- 
stitution, of which no one thought at the time of its adoption, nor 
until the abusive tendencies of the principle had begun to develope 
themselves in action. The monstrous amplitude of jurisdiction as- 
sumed during the federal ascendency, nearl)'^ co-extensive with the 
common law, the arrogance and severity of the Judges against of 

40 



462 LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

fenders under the Sedition Law, and the subsequent failure of the 
impeachment of Judge Chase for the most flagrant irregularities of 
official conduct, seem fust to have awakened the thinking part of 
the pubhc in general, and Mr. Jeflerson in particular, to a sense of 
the dangerous error which made one of the three branches of gov- 
ernment so effectually independent of the nation. His solicitudes 
upon this important subject appeared to increase every 5^ear after- 
wards, following him steadily into his retirement, as new occasions 
of usurpation administered new ahment to his alarms, and superad- 
ded materials for anxious political reflection. The following ex- 
tract of a letter to William T. Barry, in 1S22, evinces the state of his 
convictions at that period, and the earnestness of his endeavors to 
procure the necessary amendment of the Constitution. 

" Very many and very meritorious were the ^^■orthy patriots who 
assisted in bringing Ijack oar government to its republican tack. 
To preserve it in that will require unremitting vigilance. Whether 
the surrender of our opponents, their reception into our camp, their 
assumption of our name, and apparent accession to our objects, may 
strengthen or weaken the genuine principles of republicanism, may 
be a good or an evil, is yet to be seen. I consider the party division 
of whig and tory the most wholesome which can exist in any gov- 
ernment, and well worthy of being nourished, to keep out those of a 
more dangerous character. We already see the power, installed for 
life, responsible to no authority (for impeachment is not even a scare- 
crow,) advancing with a noiseless and steady pace to the great ob- 
ject of consohdation. The foundations are already deeply laid by 
their decisions, for the annihilation of constitutional State rights, and 
the removal of every check, every counterpoise to the ingulphing 
power of which themselves are to make a sovereign part. If ever 
this vast country is brought under a single government, it will be 
one of the most extensive corruption, indift'erent and incapable of a 
/ wholesome care over so wide a spread of surface. This will not be 
« borne, and you will have to choose between reformation and revolu- 
-, tion. If I know the spirit of this country, the one or the other is in- 
evitable. Before the canker is become inveterate, before its venom 
\ has reached so much of the body politic as to get beyond control, 
remedy should be apphed. Let the future appointments of judges 
be for four or six years, and renewable by the President and Sen- 
ate. This will bring their conduct, at regular periods, under revis- 
ion and probation, and may k^ep them in equipoise between the 
general and special governments. We have erred in this point, by 
copying England, where certainly it is a good thing to have the 
judges independent of the King. But we have omitted to copy 
their caution also, which makes a judge removable on the address 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 46c5 

of both legislative Houses. That there should be public functiona- 
ries independent of the nation, whatever may be their demerit, is a 
solecism in a republic, of the first order of. absurdity and inconsis- 
tency." 

At the Revolution in England it was considered a great point 
gained in favor of liberty, that the commissions of the Judges, which 
had hitherto been during the pleasure of the King, should thence- 
forth be given during good behavior ; and that the question of good 
behavior should be left to the vote of a simple majority in the two 
Houses of Parliament. A Judiciary, dependant on the will of the 
King, could never have been any other than a most oppressive in- 
strument of tyranny ; nothing, then, could be more salutary than a 
change to the tenure of good behavior, with the concomitant re- 
straint of impeachment by a simple majority. The founders of the 
American Republic were more cordial in their jealousies of the Ex- 
ecutive than either of the other branches ; so true was this of Mr. 
Jelferson in particular, that he at first thought the qualified negative 
given to that magistrate on all the laws, should have been much 
further restricted. They, therefore, very properly and consistently 
adopted the English reformation of making the Judges independ- 
ent, 'of tlie Executive. But in doing this, they as little suspected 
they had mad^ them independent of the nation, by requiring a vote 
of two thirds, in the Senatorial branch, to effect a removal. Expe- 
rience has proved such a majority impracticable, where any defence 
is made, in a body of the strong political partiahties and antipathies 
which ordinarily prevail. In the impeachment of Judge Pickering 
of New Hampshire, no defence was attempted, otherwise the party 
vote of more than one third of the Senate would have acquitted him. 
The Judiciary of the United States, then, is an irresponsible body; 
and history has established, if reason could not have foreseen, the 
' slow and noiseless' despotism of its career, under the sanctuary of 
such a tenure. If the mischief is acknowledged, the only question 
should be, not when, but what should be the remedy ? "I would 
not, indeed," says Mr. Jeflferson, " make the Judges dependant on 
the Executive authority, as they formerly were in England ; but I 
deem it indispensable to the continuance of this government, that 
they should be submitted to some practical and impartial control ; 
and that this, to be impartial, must be compounded of a mixture of 
State and Federal authorities. It is not enough that honest men 



464 LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

are appointed Judges. All know the intluence of interest on the 
mind of man, and how vmconsciously his judgment is warped by 
that influence. To this bias add that of the esprit de corps, of 
their peculiar maxim and creed, that ' it is the office of a good Judge 
to enlarge his jurisdiction,' and the absence of responsibihty ; and 
how can we expect impartial decision between the General govern- 
ment, of which they are so eminent a part, and an individual State, 
from which they have nothing to hope or fear. We have seen too, 
that, contrary to all correct example, they are in the habit of going 
out of the question before them, to throw an anchor ahead, and 
grapple further hold for future advances of power. They are then, 
in fact, the corps of sappers and miners, steadily working to under- 
mine the independent rights of the States, and to consolidate all 
power in the hands of that government, in which they have so im- 
portant a freehold estate. But it is not by the consohdation or con- 
centration of powers, but by their distribution, that good govern- 
ment is eflfected." " I repeat," he adds, '' that I do not charge the 
Judges with willful and ill-intentioned error ; but honest error must 
be arrested, when its toleration leads to public ruin. As, for the 
safety of society, we commit honest maniacs to Bedlam, so Judges 
should be withdrawn from the bench, whose erroneous biases are 
leading us to dissolution. It may, indeed, injure them in fame or in 
fortune ; but it saves the Republic, which is the first and supreme 
law." 

The latter part of Mr. Jefferson's administration was afflicted by 
a crisis in our foreign relations, which demanded the exercise of all 
that fortitude and emulous self-denial, which particularly immortal- 
ized the introductory stages of the Revolution, and charged the 
entire responsibility of the war upon Great Britain. Unfortunately, 
the fierce political passions and animosities engendered by the ter- 
rible contests of opinion, which had distracted the nation, and the 
demorahzing mania of commercial cupidity and avarice engendered 
by a twenty-four year's interval of peace, greatly interrupted on the 
present occasion, that spirit of indissoluble cohesion between the 
States, which, and which alone, carried us triumphantly through 
the crisis of emancipation, and of revolution from monarchism to 
republicanism. The generous enthusiasm of the spirit of 76 had, 
in a considerable measure, evaporated. Every description of em- 
bargo, and every degree of commercial deprivation, which was then 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 465 

too little to satisfy the voluntary rivalry of self-immolation in the 
cause of country, was now too great to be endured, though clothed 
with the authority of law, and mercifully ordained for averting the 
otherwise inevitable and overwhelming calamities of a war, not 
with England alone, but Avith nearly the whole continent of Europe. 

The memorable embargo of Mr. Jefferson was one of (hose ex- 
traordinary measiu'es, which are occasionally indispensable to coun- 
teract extraordinary emergencies. There never was a situation of 
the world, which rendered the measure more imperative with Amer- 
ica, than on the present occasion ; nor is if probable there will ever 
exist a parallel situation. The causes which coml^ined to produce 
such a phenomenon in our foreign relations, are too substantially 
understood to require dilatation. From the renewal of hostilities 
between Great Britain and France, in 1803, down to the period at 
which the embargo was enacted, the commerce of the United States 
was subjected to a steady, deliberate and progressive accumulation 
of rival depredations by tiie belligerents, until it was effectually an- 
nihilated with nearly all the world. In the tremendous struais-le 
for ascendency, which animated these powerful competitors, and 
convulsed the European world to its centre, the laws of nature, 
and of nations, were utterly disregarded by both. The mar- 
itime interests of the United States constituted the desecra- 
ted medium through which the antagonists vied in the attempt 
to crush and overpower each other, — the injuries inflicted on our 
commerce by the one, being retaliated by the other, not on the ag- 
gressor, but en the innocent and peaceable victim to their united 
ferocity. 

Anterior to the above named epoch, however. Great Britain had 
commenced her system of desolating interpolations upon the estab- 
lished law of nations. She first forbade to neutrals all trade with 
her enemies in time of war, which they had not in time of peace. 
This deprived them of their trade from port to port of the same nation. 
Then she forbade them to trade from the port of one nation to that 
of any other at war with her, although a right fully exercised in 
time of peace. And these prohibitions she liad the audacity to as- 
sert, by declaring places blockaded, before which she had not a sin- 
gle vessel of war, contrary to all reason and the usages of civilized 
nations ; nay, she declared even places blockaded which her united 
forces would be incompetent to effect, such as entire coasts, and 

40* 



466 LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

whole empires. Next, instead of taking vessels only entering a 
blockaded port, she took them over the whole ocean, if destined to 
that port, ulthoagh ignorant of the blockade, and with no intention 
to violate it. Then came the celebrated Berlin decree of the French 
Emperor, in November, 1806, which declared the British Islands in a 
\ slate of blockade, and consequently interdicted our navigation to 
j England and her dependencies. Then thundered forth the coun- 
' tervailing orders in council, on the part of Great Britain, which de- 
clared all France and her allies in a state of blockade, and conse- 
quently interdicted our navigation to France and her dependencies, 
comprehending nearly the whole continent of Europe. And these 
decrees and orders were followed by the famous Milan lejoinder of 
Bonaparte, and tlie surrejoinders of England, too numerous to men- 
tion, and more and more aggressive on the rights of unoffending, 
neutral America. 

Under the joint operation of these antagonist edicts and procla- 
mations, there was not a single port in Europe, or her dependencies, 
to which American vessels could navigate, without being exposed 
to capture and condemnation. In this situation what were the 
United States to do ? To have made reprisals on both the belliger- 
ents, though rigorously and impartially just, would have been to 
commit us in a war with both and their respective allies, which would 
have been certain destruction. To have made reprisals on one and 
not on the other, under the existing circumstances, would have been 
a departure from just and impartial neutrality, and involved us, as 
a party, in the European conflagration. But to submit to the fero- 
cious and unrestrained spoliations of the belligerents, without resis- 
tance and reprisal, was impossible ; it would have amounted to a 
surrender, at once, of our independence as a nation, besides soon 
\ annihilating ovn- property on the ocean. More than nine hundred 
'^^ American vessels were captured by the British, under their orders 
in council, at a time of profound peace between the two nations. 
American property, to the amount of thirty millions of dollars, was 
placed at the discretion of the Admiralty courts of Great Britain ; 
and a still greater amount was submitted to the French council of 
prizes or council of State. In such a state of things, the only alter- 
natives v/ere : 1st, "War with all Europe. 2d, Submission to univer 
.sal and unrestrained piracy, 3d, Embargo, as a powerfully coercive 
peace measure, and a preparation for war. The President wisely 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. * 467 

preferred the last, as the least of the three evils ; and in pursuance 
of his recommendation, the measure was adopted by Congress, on 
the 22d day of December, 1807, by overwhelming majorities in 
both Houses. 

In addition to the joint aggressions on our neutral rights, under 
the sweeping paper blockades of both belligerents, Great Britain 
was in the distinct habit of daily violations of our sovereignty, in 
the form of impressments. The injuries perpetually rising from 
this source alone, constituted an abundant cause of war, and con- 
sequently of embargo, as to that nation. At no period since the 
commencement of the French revolution, had there been the want 
of a sufficient cause of war with Great Britain, in her vexations 
and lawless asportations of our seamen ; which ought to have si- 
lenced forever the ungenerous imputation that the present measure 
was the dictate of a fraudulent neutrality, favorable to Bonaparte. 
Denying the right of expatriation, the British ministry authorized 
the seizure of naturalized Americans wherever they could be 
found, under color of their having been born within the British do- 
minions. From the abuses of this practice, sufficiently enormous 
in its rightful exercise, thousands of Araeiican citizens, native horn. 
as well as naturalized, were subjected to the petty despotism of 
naval officers, acting as judges, juries, and executioners, and doom- 
ed by them to slavery, and death, or to become the instruments of 
destruction to thek own countrymen. 

Minor provocations and injuries were, in June 1807, absorbed in 
the audacity of an aggression, which is without a parallel in the 
history of independent nations at peace. By order of the British 
Admiral, Berkley, the ship Leopard of fifty guns, ffied on the Uni- 
ted States frigate Chesapeake, of thirty-six guns, within the waters 
of the United States, in order to compel the delivery of part of her 
crew, claimed as British subjects. After several broadsides from the 
Leopard, and four men killed on board the Chesapeake, the latter 
struck ; was boarded by the British ; and had four men taken from 
her, three of them native American citizens, one of whom was hang- 
ed as a British deserter. Never since the battle of Lexington had 
there existed such a state of universal exasperation in the public 
mind, as was produced by this enormity. Popular assemblies w^ere 
convened in every considerable place, at which resolutions were 
passed, expressive of unqualified indignation at the outrage, and 



A68 LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 



pledging the lives, fortunes, and sacred honors of the people, to 
procure ' indemnity for the past, security for tlie future.' 

Now was the time, above all others, when, if Mr. Jefferson was 
really actuated by undue partiality to France and hostility to Eng- 
land, as was always alleged against him, he might have effectually 
gratified his political passions, and have been justified by the whole 
nation. But, instead of convening Congress instantly upon the oc- 
currence, when war would have been declared against England al- 
ihost unanimously, he prudently deferred that measure until the 
extraordinary ebullition of the public mind had sirbsided. Main- 
taining a v»^ise and discriminating moderation, however, as far re- 
moved from pusillanimity as rashness, he forthwitii issued an ener- 
getic proclamation, interdicting British armed vessels from enteriiig 
the waters of the United States, and commanding all those therein 
immediately to depart. In this manner, peace was judiciously pro- 
longed, without any compromise of the national honor, and saving 
the right to declare v.- ar, imder better auspices, on failure of an ami- 
cable reparation of the injury. By the time Congress assembled, 
the affair of the Chesapeake was hopefully committed to negotia- 
tion, with the additional constraint which it imposed on the British 
government to settle the whole subject of impressments. And the 
depredations on our r.eutral rights by the rival belligerents, under 
their orders in council and imperial decrees, were put together _^on 
an equal footing, and made the occasion of an embargo operating 
equally and impartially against both. 

This was the only act of Mr. Jefferson's administration, which 
received the avowed approbation of the federahsts as a party ; and 
the second one in his whole political life which attained to that rare 
distinction — his correspondence with Genet being the first. • It is 
obvious that they were actuated by the same principle, on both oc- 
casions, in bestowing their commendations — viz. that of subservi- 
ence to England and inveterate enmity to France, the reverse of 
which they had always so copiously charged upon the President. 
Alluding to the transaction some years after, Mr. Jefferson wrote to 
a friend : " Had I been personally hostile to England, and biased 
in favor of either the character or views of her great antagonist, the 
affair of the Chesapeake put war into my hand. I had only to open 
it, and let havoc loose. But if ever I was gratified with the posses- 
sion of power, and of the confidence of those who had entrusted me 



OF THOMAS JEFFRSON. 



409 



with it, it was on tliat occasion, when I was enabled to use both for 
the prevention of war, towards which the torrent of passion was di- 
rected almost irresistibly, and when not another person in the Uni- 
ted States, less supported by authority and favor, could have resisted 
it." Again, in writing to Elbridge Gerry, in 1812, he says: " The 
vote of your opponents is the most honorable mark by which the 
soundness of your conduct coald be stamped. I claim the same 
honorable testimonial. There was but a single act of my whole 
administration of which that party approved. That was the proc- 
lamation on the attack of the Chesapeake. And when I found 
they approved of it, I confess I began strongly to apprehend I had 
done wrong, and to exclauu with the Psalmist, ' Lord, what have I 
done that the wicked should praise me !' " 

No measure adopted by the government of the United States, un- 
der every variety of difficulty through which it has struggled, has 
encountered so great a measure of odium, and of treasonable resist- 
ance, as the embargo of Mr. Jefferson. It was during its continu- 
ance, to wit, in the beginning of the 5'ear 1809, that the Essex de- 
nomination of federalists, availing themselves of the feverish discon- 
tents in the Eastern States to foiuent insurrection and rebellion, en- 
gaged in the diabolical conspiracy of John Henry, secret agent of 
the British Goverrniient, to accomplish the ancient purpose of a dis- 
solution of the Union, by a detachment of the disafiected section, 
and its organization into a political connection with Great Britain. 
This was the last convulsive effort of the hydra of monarchy, An- 
glomany, hieocracy, &.c. (fee, prolonged indeed and pertinaciously 
sustained, until the victory of New Orleans, fortified by the restora- 
tion of peace, smothered it in the death-bed dehberations of its party 
at Hartford. '' I doubt," says Mr. Jefferson in 182.5, '• whether a 
single fact, known to the world, will carry as clear conviction to it, of 
the correctness of our knowledge cf the treasonable views of the 
federal party of that day, as that disclosed by this, the most nefari- 
ous and daring attempt to dissever the Union, of which the Hait- 
ford Convention was a subsequent chapter." The knowledge of 
this detestable and extensive conspiracy, revolted from the federal 
party, one* of its most magnanimous leaders, whose prompt and pa- 
triotic disclosure of it to the President, identified him in principle with 

* J. Q. Adams. 



470 LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

the republican l)ody of his fellow-citizens, and occasioned the imme- 
diate substitution of non-intercourse with France and England, in 
place of the general embargo. The substance of th» disclosures of 
tliis gentleman, confirmed by the subsequent divulgation of Henry 
himself, with its important influence on the revolution of measures 
adopted by tlic administration, is contained in the following extract 
of a letter to William B. Giles, written by Mr. Jefferson in 1825. 

" That interview I reraeml)er well ; not indeed in the very words 
which passed between us, but in their substance, which was of a 
character too awful, too deeply engraved in my mind, and influenc- 
ing too materially the course I had to pursue, ever to be forgotten. 
Mr. Adams called on me pending the eml^argo, and while endeav- 
ors were making to obtain its repeal. He made some apologies for 
the call, on the ground of our not being then in the habit of confi- 
dential communications, but that that which he had then to make, 
involved too seriously the interest of our country not to overrule all 
other considerations with him, and make it his duty to reveal it to 
mvself particidarly. I assured him there was no occasion for any 
apology for his visit ; that, on the contrary, his communications 
would be thankfully received, and would add a confirmation the 
more to my entire confidence in the rectitude and patriotism of his 
conduct and principles. He spoke then of the dissatisfaction of the 
eastern portion of oui- confederacy with tlie restraints of the embargo 
then existing, and their restlessness under it. That there was 
nothing which might not be attempted, to rid themselves of it. 
That he had information of the most unquestionable certainty, that 
certcyn citizens of the Eastern States (I think he named Massachu- 
setts particularly) were in negotiation with agents of the British gov- 
ernment, the object of which wfts an agreement that the New 
England $tates should take no further part in the war then going 
on"""; that, without formally declaring their separation from the Un- 
ion of the States, they should withdraw from all aid and obedience 
to them ; that their navigation and commerce should be free from 
restraint and interruption by the British ; that they should be con- 
sidered and treated by them as neutrals, and as such might conduct 
themselves towards both parties ; and, at the close of the war, be at 
liberty to rejoin the confederacy. He assured me that there was im- 



* The apparent anaclironism of this expression has since been expLained by 
Mr. T. J. Randolph, grand-son of Mi. Jefferson, who says, that in frequent con- 
versations with his grand-father on the subject, the words " war then going on," 
v/ere used figuratively and familiarly by him, to denote the ' war of commercial 
restrictions,' or the war waged by the belligerents on our commerce ; and that 
they should be so understood in the letter. The subsequent phrase, " close of 
the war," was meant to apply to the war then apprehended by him, and by oth- 
ers, as imminent and unavoidable. 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 471 

miiient danger that the convention would take place ; that the 
temptations were such as might debauch many from their fidehty 
to the Union ; and that, to enable its friends to make head against 
it, the repeal of the embargo was absolutely necessary. I expressed 
a just sense of the merit of tliis information, and of the importance 
of the disclosure to the safety and even the salvation of our country : 
and however reluctant I was to abandon the measure (a measure 
which persevered in a little longer, we had subsequent and satisfac- 
tory assurance would have elfectcd its object completely,) from that 
moment, and influenced by that information, I saw the necessity of 
abandoning it, and instead of effecting our purpose by this peaceful 
weapon, we must fight it out, or break the Union. I then recom- 
mefided to my friends to yield to the necessity of a repeal of the em- 
bargo, and to endeavor to supply its place by the best substitute, in 
which they could procure a general concurrence." 

A further attention to history renders it still more problematical, 
whether the paramount objection to the embargo originated in an ap- 
prehension of its effects upon this country, or upon Great'Britain — 
whether it was the dictate of genuine patriotism, or of sj^stematic op- 
position to republican men and measures. The indentical descrip- 
tion of characters who reprobated the course of administration on 
the present occasion, advocated and applauded a similar course, un- 
der both the antecedent Presidents. When the advocates of com- 
mercial discrimination, in the Congress of '94, exasperated to a 
bolder tone by a fresh infliction of maritime atrocities, were upon 
the point of passing a non- importation law against Great Britain, 
and a law for the sequestration of British debts, the federalists, in- 
order to avert so heavy a calamity from their patron nation, became 
the zealous supporters of embargo, as a powerful incentive to nego- 
tiation, and a preventative of war. The embargo was carried by 
the federal vote ; and Mr, Jay was armed with it as a weapon for 
procuring a peaceable accommodation of difficulties at the Court of 
St. James. In February, 1800, an embargo was laid, under the 
auspices of Mr. Adams, prohibiting all intercourse between the Uni- 
ted States, and France and her dependencies. This act was also 
passed by a federal Congress ; and not a murmur of discontent was 
heard among the merchants or politicians. On both these occasions 
France was injured, and England benefitted by the measure ! nor 
should it be forgotten that the very individuals, who were loudest in 
denouncing the embargo of Mr. Jefferson, and most clamorous for 
war, were the first to engage in turbulent and treasonable opposi- 



472 LIFE, AVRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

tion to the war subsequently brought on us by accumulated aggres- 
sions from the same quarter. The mind can scarcely conceive a 
grosser series of pohtical inconsistencies. The present crisis was in- 
finitely more imperious for a general embargo, than either of the 
two former for a special one ; and the measure itself, though at- 
tended with much individual distress, was a blessing to those very 
individuals, on whom it pressed the heaviest. It only required them 
to do with their property what every prudent man would have done, 
of his own free will. As a substitute of war, it was the choice of a 
less evil for a greater, and at the same time annoyed the belligerent 
Powers more than could have been done by the most direct and 
open warfare. England felt it in her manufactures, by privations 
of the raw material, in her maritime interests, by the loss of her na- 
val stores, and above all in the discontinuance of supplies essential 
to her colonies. France felt it in the deprivation of all those luxu- 
ries which she had been accustomed to receive through our neutral 
commerce, and in the still more distressing deprivation of necessa- 
ries for her colonies. Our commerce was the second in the world, 
our carrying trade the very first, and had the restraint upon them 
been sacredly observed, it could not have failed to have coerced the 
European nations into justice. But the resistance was so great, so 
determined, and so darmg, that it was found impracticable to enforce 
obedience, without provoking violence and insurrection. The con- 
sequence was, that the practical efhcacy of the embargo, as an en- 
gine of coercion, proved greatly disproportioned to the reasonable ex- 
pectations of its friends. But on whom shoidd this imputation bear ? 
on the pacific author of the measure ? on its innate inaptitude and 
inefficiency ? or on those rather who were engaged in a regular 
course of thwarting its execution, by covert evasion under every ex- 
tent and variety of smuggling, by open resistance, to the awful ex- 
tremity of setting up the constituted authorities of the individual 
States in nullification of the powers of the General government, by 
exaggerated misrepresentations to England of its ruinous and disor- 
ganizing effects upon this country, and by treasonable correspond- 
ence and combination with the emissaries of Britain, for making it 
the instrument of breaking up the foundations of the republic. 

But as a preparation for war, the utility of the embargo was con- 
fessedly inestimable. It gained a most desirable interval for our 
merchants to call home their property ; for our seamen to retire with- 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 473 

in the limits of secuiity ; and for the government to place the na- 
tion in a firm attitude of offence as well as defence. From the 
moment of the attack on the Chesapeake, and especially after the 
passage of the embargo, every faculty was exerted by the President 
to be prepared for the last resort ; for he believed that the time would 
come, when war would be preferable to a continuance of the embar- 
go, and that the latter should never be abandoned except for the for- 
mer, so long as the British orders in council continued unrepealed. 
Nothing was omitted in the way of providing arms and military 
stores, detaching the militia, raising regiments, enlarging and ecjuip- 
ping the navy, and placing the country completely hors (Tinsulte 
from any maritime force. During the whole time, also, negotiation 
was plyed unremittingly, and with all the potency, which the coer- 
cive tendency of its measures threw into the scale of our govern- 
ment. In order to single out an enemy, since to make war on both 
belligerents would have be'en ridiculous, instructions were given to 
our Minister at London, exphcitly to declare, that in case Great Brit- 
ain would rescind her hostile decrees in relation to us, our trade 
should be opened with her and remain shut to her enemy, in case 
he should refuse to rescind his decrees also. Authority was given 
to our Minister at Paris to make the same overture to France, ex- 
cept that, instead of giving a direct pledge, it was left to that govern- 
ment to "presume a sufficient inducement with ours, on the revoca- 
tion of their decrees, to repeal the embargo as to them, and continue 
it against England. France accepted the offer, and revoked her de- 
crees against the United States ; though it was not until the embar- 
go had been removed, except as to her and Great Britain, and Mr. 
Jefferson had retired from the government. England not only re- 
jected the proposal, but declared by a solemn proclamation of her 
Prince Regent, that she would not rescind her orders even as to us, 
until those of France should be annulled as to the lohole world. 
The United States thereupon declared war, adding the old account 
of impressments to the new account of commercial despotisms, and 
the avowed determination to pursue them. In this war, it was the 
glory of the United States to consummate the work of independence, 
by achieving the emancipation of the ocean, bearing off the palm of 
the contest with the overshadowing eclat of the battle of Orleans. 

Among the distinguishing ornaments of the administrative policy 
of Mr. Jefferson, none was more conspicuous, none more congenial 

41 



474 LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

to the distinctive nature of republicanism, than his scrupulous ad- 
hesion to the constitutional in\dolability of the freedom of speech, 
freedom of the press, and freedom of religion. The various, bold, 
and arbitrary entrenchments upon these sacred rights, under the 
previous dynasties, in silencing by intimidation every expression of 
disapprobation a,t the government authorities ; in characterizing 
with the legal appellation of seditious, incurring the penalties of a 
high misdemeanor, every printed exposition of their ruinous princi- 
ples and practices ; and in artfully confounding republicanism with 
Anti-Christ, to arouse, and sharpen, and concentrate upon the two- 
fold victim, the tremendous visitations of the priesthood ; these 
despotic weapons, with other expedients and artifices, constituted a 
material part of the machinery employed by the terrorists of that 
day, for beating down the votaries of the real principles of the consti- 
tution, — the firm preservers of the 1 iberties of the revolution . A gener- 
al disband ment from the government, of these artifixial supports, suc- 
ceeded the elevation of Mr. Jefferson ; and a system of rule entirely 
the reverse in all points, was rigorously substituted. Public opinion 
constituted its sole foundation, and private morality its invariable 
guide. The utmost latitude of discussion was not only tolerated, 
but invited and protected, as a fundamental ingredient in the com- 
position of republican government, indispensable to preserve it from 
deterioration. The celebrated traveller. Baron Humboldt, calhng 
on the President one day, was received into his cabinet. On tak- 
ing up one of the public journals which lay upon the table, he was 
shocked to ' find its columns teeming with the most wanton abuse 
and licentious calumnies of the President. He threw it down with 
indignation, exclaiming, " Why do you not have the fellow hung 
who dares to write these abominable lies ?" The President smiled 
at the warmth of the Baron, and replied — " What ! hang the guar- 
dians of the public morals ? No sir, — rather would I protect the 
spirit of freedom which dictates even that degree of abuse. Put 
that paper into your pocket, my good friend, carry it with you to 
Europe, and when you hear any one doubt the reaUty of American 
freedom^ show them that paper, and tell them where you found it." 
" Butis it not shocking that virtuous characters should be defamed ?" 
replied the Baron. " Let their actions refute such hbels. Believe 
mc," continued the President, " virtue is not long darkened by the 
clouds of calumny ; and the temporary pain which it causes is in- 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. " 475 

finite! 3' ovevweighed by the safety it iasuves against- degeneracy in 
the principles and conduct of pubUc functionaries. When a man 
assumes a public trust, he should consider himself as public prop- 
erty."* 

In pursuance of this principle, he discharged, immediately on 
coming into office, all those who were suffering persecution for 
opinion's sake under the operation of the Sedition Law. He inter- 
posed the executive prerogative in every instance, by ordering the 
prosecutions to be arrested at the threshold ; or, if judgment and ex- 
ecution had passed, by remitting the fines of the sufferers, and re- 
leasing them from imprisonment. The grounds on which he rest- 
ed his right to act in these cases, are forcibly stated in answer to a 
correspondent m Massachusetts, who questioned the constitutionali- 
ty of his interference. 

"But another fact is, that I 'liberated a wretch who was sufier- 
ing for a libel against Mr. Adams.' I do not know who was the 
particular wretch alluded to ; but I discharged every person under 
punishment or prosecution under the sedition law, because I consid- 
ered, and now consider, that law to be a nullity, as absolute and 
as palpable as if Congress had ordered us to fall down and worship 
a golden image ; and that it was as much my duty to arrest its ex- 
ecution in every stage, as it would have been to have rescued from 
the fiery furnace those who should have been cast into it for refus- 
ing to worship the image. It was accordingly done in every in- 
stance, without asking what the oflenders had done, or against 
whom they had offended, but whether the pains they were suffer- 
ing were inflicted under the pretended sedition law. It was certain- 
ly possible that my motives for contributing to the rehef of Callen- 
dar, and liberating sufferers under the sedition law, might have 
been to protect, encourage, and reward slander ; but they may also 
have been those which inspire ordinary charities to objects of dis- 
tress, meritorious or not, or the obligation of an oath to protect the 
constitution, violated by an unauthorized act of Congress. Which 
of these were my motives, must be decided by a regard to the gen- 
eral tenor of my hfe. On this I am not afraid to appeal to" the na- 
tion at large, to posterity, and still less to that Being who sees him- 
self our motives, who will judge us from his own knowledge of 
them, and not on the testimony of Porcupine or Fenno." 

The President not only liberated all those under persecution by 
his enemies, but refused to permit a single prosecution in retahation, 
even in the State courts, where they might have been rightfully 

* Winter in Washington. 



■l/e LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

sustained on common law principles. This was at a time, too, 
when all the mounds of truth, reason and decency, were prostrated 
before the torrents of private and public vituperation, — when, during 
nearly the whole administration, the treasonable doctrine of a dis- 
solution of the Union was openly advocated in the gazettes, and 
preached from the pulpit, with such incendiary vehemence and per- 
tinacity, as imperiously demanded, in the opinion of many republi- 
cans even, a re-enactment and rigorous execution of the Sedition 
Law, to save the republic. Availing themselves of this state of 
things, the federal Judges in Connecticut made an attempt to se- 
duce the administration into an acknowledgement of a common 
law jurisdiction in the federal court over libels. They instigated 
prosecutions in a multitude of instances, and in one particularly, 
went so far as actually to institute proceedings against a clergyman, 
for calunmies uttered against the Chief Magistrate from the pulpit. 
On the first intelligence of the prosecution, the President wrote to Mr. 
Granger, then in Connecticut, stating ' that he had laid it down as 
a law to himself, to take no notice of the thousand calumnies issued 
against him, but to trust his character to his own conduct, and the 
good sense and candor of his fellow citizens ; that he had found no 
reason to be dissatisfied with that course, and was unwilling it should 
be violated by others as to any matter concerning himself;' and 
therefore requested him to desire the district attorney to dismiss the 
prosecution. Some time after, hearing of subpoenas being served 
on several gentlemen, as witnesses to attend the trial, he again 
wrote to require an immediate dismission of the prosecution. The 
answer of Mr. Huntington, the district attorney, was, that the pro- 
ceeding had been instituted, and the subpoenas issued by the de- 
fendant, without his knowledge ; that it had been his intention, be- 
fore receiving the President's directions, to dismiss all the prosecu- 
tions at the first opening of the court, and to accompany it with an 
avowal of his opinion that they could not be maintained, because the 
federal court possessed no jurisdiction over libels. This was accord- 
ingly done ; and the clergyman expressed his gratification at the 
discontinuance of the prosecution, accompanied by a disavowal of 
the alleged libel. The attorney acted on the same ground on which 
the President had, in the cases instituted under the preceding ad- 
ministration ; to wit, ' that the Sedition Law, being in the face of 
the constitution, was an absolute nuUity, and that his obligation to 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 477 

execute what was law, involved that of not suffering rights secured 
by valid laws, to be prostrated by what was no law.' 

On the subject of religion, it was the unalterable policy of the 
President to maintain the freedom of thought and speech in all the 
latitude of which the human mind is susceptible, and as justly cir- 
cumscribable by no human authority ; to recognize, in his official 
capacity, no preference for the opinion of one man over that of an- 
other, whether he believed iii one God, or twenty, or none at all ; 
and to discountenance, by all the means in his power, every tendeii 
cy to predominance and persecution in any sect, by proscription of 
the least degree, even in public opinion. The dogmas of a partic- 
ular faith were no longer made a stalking-horse of political ambi- 
don, or a buttress of support to the authorities in power. Equal 
and universal toleration was the golden motto of the new order of 
things. The prospect of introducing a hierarchy in the United 
States, which had been a favorite idea with the royalists and reli- 
gionists, from the establishment of the government, may be said to 
have received its annihilation, on the republican restoration in 1 800. 
Rapid approaches to such an establishment had evidently been 
made, before that epoch, and indirectly, perhaps ignorantly, coun- 
tenanced by the administration, in the general tendency of meas- 
ures pursued by the supreme functionaries. The constant intro- 
duction of politics into the pulpits of the dominant order, in exag- 
gerated commendation of the existing dynasty, and in equal defam- 
ation of the characters and principles of the opposition ; the open 
avowal of the doctrine in the federal gazettes, that it was the ' sa- 
cred duty of clergymen to intermeddle in the concerns of the tem- 
poral power ;' and the assumption of authority by the General gov- 
ernment to prescribe religious exercises for the nation, were not 
among the least of the advances to a meretricious union of Church 
and State. Among the last struggles of the exploded oligarchy, 
was the appointment by the President of a grand National Fast, to 
be observed by all the States, and by all the people in each State. 
This was undoubtedly the darkest day for Christianity that the 
United States ever saw. The sacerdotal character was completely 
merged in that of the political zealot. The pulpit resounded with 
inflammatory denunciations of infidel democracy, French illumin- 
ism, &c. &c., and with overstrained eulogiums of the legitimacy and 
strait-laced sanctity of the ascendant party. Many now living may 

41* 



478 LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

recollect the degree of proscription, even to the deprivation of pubUc 
office, which was visited on some of those who refused to observe 
the unconstitutional fast of the President. 

It will ever be accounted one of the chief glories of Mr. Jefferson's 
succession, that he arrested the destructive career of these heresies ; 
and hnpressed upon the General government the same broad stamp 
of religious freedom and liberality, which he had formerly done on 
the special governments, first of Virginia, and thence by example, of 
the other States of the Union, in beautiful rotation. In doing this, 
he had to encounter all those fierce and intractable prejudices, which 
drew upon his dissolution of Church and State in Virginia, the ter- 
lible and lasting resentments of the privileged order. Such eviden- 
ces are indeed rare, of the superiority of principle to the allurements 
of power and popularity. He not only discarded the aid of the 
Church, by disclaiming all right of interference in spiritual concerns, 
but dared to array the Church against him, by denying all right in 
the clergy to participate in temporal concerns. In truth, the hfe of 
Mr. Jeflerson is a continued history of unremitting labors in the glo- 
rious -work of achieving the emancipation of the conscience ; in con 
signing the bigotry of Protestantism to the tomb of the inquisition of 
Romanism, and the Juggernauts of Paganism ; in liberahzing the 
sentiments of opposing sectaries, and protecting the rights of the 
weaker against the persecutions of the stronger ; in liberating from 
the fetters of priestcraft, from the gloomy and ferocious mysteries of 
fanaticism, and the phantasies of superstition, " the most sublime, 
the most benevolent, yet most perverted system that ever shone on 
man ;" in advancing progressively, with the progress of light and 
liberty in the secular, the reformation of speculative opinions in the 
religious world, and in drawing an impassable line of separation 
between the two ; in inculcating a " firm adherence to justice, 
moderation, temperance, christian forbearance, brotherly love and 
charity." It is chiefly by his labors that the United States are pla- 
ced centuries in advance of every other nation on the globe, in the 
possession of the rights of conscience ; and to him, more than to 
any other individual, is the world at large indebted for the amount 
of religious liberty which it enjoys. 

In reply to the solicitation of a very respectable clergyman, for the 
appointment of a National Fast, in conformity to the practice of his 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. i79 

predecessors, he assigns the reasons of his departure from their ex- 
ample, in measured terms. 

" I consider the government of the United States as interdicted 
by the constitution from intermeddUng with rehgious institutions, 
their doctrines, disciphne, or exercises. This results not only from 
the provision that no law shall be made respecting the estabhsh- 
ment or free exercise of religion, but from that also which reserves 
to the States the powers not delegated to the United States. Cer- 
tainly, no power to prescribe any religious exercise, or to assume au- 
thority in religious discipline, has been delegated to the General 
government. It must then rest with the States, as far as it can be 
in any human authority. But it is only proposed that I should re- 
co7?wiend, not prescribe, a day of fasting and prayer. That is, that 
I should indirectly assume to the United States an authority over 
religious exercises, which the constitution has directly precluded 
them from. It must be meant, too, that this reconmiendation is to 
carry some authority, and to be sanctioned by some penalty on those 
w^ho disregard it ; not indeed of fine and imprisonment, but of some 
degree of proscription, perhaps in public opinion. And does the 
change in the nature of the penalty make the recommendation less 
a laiv of conduct for those to whom it is directed? I do not believe 
it is for the interest of religion to invite the civil magistrate to direct 
its exercises, its discipline, or its doctrines ; nor of the religious soci- 
eties, that the General government should be invested with the pow- 
er of effecting any uniformity of time or matter among them. Fast- 
ing and prayer are religious exercises; the enjoining them an act of 
discipline. Every religious society has a right to determine for it- 
self the times for these exercises, and the objects proper for them, 
according to their own particular tenets ; and this right can never 
be safer tlian in theii- own hands, where the constitution has depos- 
ited it. 

" I am aware that the practice of my predecessors may be quoted. 
But I have ever believed, that the example of State executives led 
to the assumption of that authority by the General government, 
without due examination, which would have discovered that what 
might be a right in a State government, was a violation of that 
right when assumed by another. Be this as it may, every one 
must act according to the dictates of his own reason, and mine tells 
me that civil powers alone have been given to the President of the 
United States, and no authority to direct the religious exercises of 
his constituents." 

Many credulous persons were overwhelmed with feverish appre- 
hensions of the doleful consequences to rehgion, which would result 
from the elevation of Mr. Jefferson to power. They really believ- 
ed in the gossipping forebodings of the politico-rehgious mounte- 



480 LtFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

banks of the day, that he would introduce a wild system of govern- 
ment, which sliould overthrow all the temples of devotion, burn all 
the Bibles in the land, abolish the institution of the Sabbath, 
and bring all the clergy to the guillotine. Humorous legends enliv- 
en the traditionary annals of many a country village in New Eng- 
land, of sundry old women being so haunted and tormented with 
these spectres, as to have hid their bibles and prayer-books, with 
most scrupulous and reverential precaution against the awful con- 
flaoration in expectancy. Such ideas were in reality quite preva- 
lent at that period, and were so artfully impressed on the multitude 
by ' those who had mounted themselves on their fears,' as to influ- 
ence a respectable portion of the elective population, in the less free- 
minded and enlightened districts of the Union. How this seven-fold 
refinement of Gothic delusion was dissipated by the event, it is al- 
most needless to narrate. None of the sinister dreams and vaga- 
ries of the political soothsayers, were realized. Under the mild and 
pacific sway of Jefferson, religion flourished infinitely ; not indeed, 
wrapped in the armour of spurious and artificial terrors, but in all 
the cogency of its native loveliness, embracing under its benignant 
and comprehensive mantle, all sects and denominations without 
partiality. It is an historical fact, that religion prevailed more ex- 
tensively, and with a greater degree of purity, because more free 
from extraneous constraints and adulterations, than during any 
former period of the government. The clergy were respected ; but 
in proportion only as they respected the sacred character of their 
office, and became sensible of their dependance for reputation and 
influence, upon the rectitude of their conduct — not upon the pomp, 
power, and patronage of the government. The institution of the 
Sabbath was mercifully permitted to continue as before ; and if the 
Bibles did not remain as securely on their shelves, and the Meeting- 
houses on their foundations, it was because the former were in 
greater requisition for devotional exercises, and the latter were com- 
pelled to give place to more extensive and magnificent edifices, to 
accommodate the increasing throngs of a tax-relieved, prosperous, 
grateful and rejoicing people. With regard to the personal piety of 
the President, if external observances are of any account, it is well 
known that he was a constant and exemplary attendant upon public 
worship ; hberal in contributions to the support of the simple, un- 
dogmatized religion of Jesus ; but frowning and inflexible on all secta- 



OF THOMAS? JEFFERSON. 



481 



rian, aggrandizing, or visionary projects It is stated with much- con- 
fidence by a living^chronicle* of those times, whose personal intima- 
cy with the President enabled him to speak with authority on the 
subject, that ' he contributed to found more temples for religion and 
education than any other man of that age.' 

The minor traits of Mr. Jefferson's administration open a range 
of topics, on which the historian might dwell and expatiate with ever- 
renewing delight His simplicity was only equalled by his econo- 
my, of which he presented an example, in the extinguishment of 
more than thirty-three millions of the public debt, which is unparal- 
leled in any previous history of the world. The diplomatic agents 
of foreign governments, on their introduction to him, were often 
embarrassed, and sometimes mortified, at the entire absence of eti 
quette with which they were received ; but the awkwardness of the 
moment was soon lost in admiration of a character, and a scene, so 
congenial to the spirit of republican government. His arrivals at 
the Seat of Government, and departures therefrom, were so studious- 
ly timed and conducted, as to be unobserved and unattended. His 
inflexibility upon this point, so variant from the practice of his pred- 
ecessors, could never be overcome ; and he was finally permitted to 
pursue his own course, undisturbed by any manifestations of popu- 
lar feeling. His uniform mode of riding was on horseback, which 
was daily, and always unattended. In one of these solitary excur- 
sions, while passing a stream of water, he was accosted by a feeble 
l^eggar, who implored his assistance to transport him and his bag- 
gage. He immediately mounted the beggar behind him, and car- 
ried him over ; on perceiving he had neglected his wallet, he as 
good humoredly recrossed the stream and brought it over to him. 

Although repeatedly and warmly solicited by liis friends to make 
a tour to the North, he never could reconcile it to his obhgations of 
propriety as a Chief Magistrate. In a private answer to Governor 
Sullivan of Massachusetts, on the subject, he wrote : '• The course 
of hfe which General Washington had run, civil and mihtary, the 
services he had rendered, and the space he therefore occupied in the 
affections of his fellow citizens, tgike from his examples the weiglit of 
precedents for others, because no others can arrogate to themselves 
tlie claims which he had on the public homage. To myself, therc- 

■^■S.H. Smith. 



482 LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

fore, it comes as a new question, to be viewed under all the phase? 
it may present. I confess, that I am not reconciled to the idea of a 
Chief Magistrate parading himself through the several States as an 
object of public gaze, and in quest of an applause, which, to be val- 
uable, should be purely voluntary. I had rather acquire silent good 
will by a faithful discharge of my duties, than owe expressions of it 
to ray putting myself in the way of receiving them." 

He cari'ied his ideas of simplicity to such an extent as to deprecate 
the size of the house allotted to the Chief Magistrate. He thought 
it should have been turned into a Universit)^ Nor was it from any 
sordidness of disposition, any constitutional insensibihty to the 
charms of elegance, that his extraordinary frugality, simplicity, and 
plainness proceeded ; l)ut purely from an exquisite sense of his ob- 
ligations as a public man, and a determination to leave an exam- 
ple which should long counteract the natural tendency of nations to 
luxury, dissipation and extravagance. Had it been otherwise, 
he might with less contestable propriety, have deprecated the size 
and magnificence of his own Monticello, which, in the various 
buildings and rebuildings it underwent at his hands, to suit the 
progress of his taste in the arts, is believed to have cost more than 
the mansion of the Chief Magistrate. In his j^rivate expenditures, 
he was indeed liberal, to a fault. Humane and compassionate to- 
wards his fellow man, on a scale of benevolence which comprehend- 
ed every distinction of color and condition, no feasible object of phi- 
lanthropy was probably ever presented to him, which he did not en- 
courage b}' the most generous assistance. But in the immediate 
circle of his friends, to whom, from the warmth of his feelings, he 
was ever devoted, his liberality appeared to know no limits. In the 
profusion of expensive presents which he lavished upon them, in 
the extensive accommodations of money with which he succored 
them under embarrassment, in the exuberant hospitality with 
which he entertained strangers and visitors from every country, 
and in his ordinary habits of living, which embraced all the enjoy- 
ments of a refined taste, such evidences of a private munificence 
appeared, as contrasted wonderfully with his frugality and simplici- 
ty as a public man. 

One other trait of Mr. Jefferson, in the discharge of his official du- 
ties, deserves a conspicuous mention,— to wit, his disinterestedness. 
The distinguishable eminence of this quality is evidenced by the 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 483 

fact that in all the splendid stations which he occupied, he accumu- 
lated nothing ; but retired from each of them much poorer than he 
entered, and from the last and greatest station, " with hands," to 
use his own expression, " as clean as they were empty," — indeed, on 
the very verge of bankruptcy. While, in the short interval of eight 
years, he had saved to his country millions 'and millions of dollars, 
enough to make her rich and free, who was before poor and op- 
pressed with taxation ; he, of the immense fortune with which he set 
out in life, had added nothing, and lost almost every thing. If any 
further testimony were wanting on this brilliant theme, it might be 
drawn from the fact of his having refrained from appointing a sin- 
gle relation to office. This was not only true of him, while Presi- 
dent, but in every pubhc station which he j&Ued. Writing to a friend 
in 1824, he says: "In the course of the trusts I have exercised 
through hfe with powers of appointment, I can say with truth, and 
with unspeakable comfort, that I never did appoint a relation to of- 
fice, and that merely because I never saw the case in which some 
one did not offer, or occur, better qualified." Nor, in the multiplied 
removals and replacements which he was compelled to make, did he 
eject a jiersonal eneviy, ov appoint vl jtersonal friend. He felt it 
his duty to observe these rules, for reasons expressed in answer to an 
application for office by a relative : "That my constituents may be 
satisfied, that, in selecting persons for the management of their af- 
fairs, I am influenced by neither personal nor family interests, 
and especially, that the field of public office will not be perverted by 
me into a family property. On this subject, I had the benefit of use- 
ful lessons from my predecessors, had I needed them, marking what 
was to be imitated and what avoided. But, in truth, the nature of 
our government is lesson enough. Its energy depending mainly on 
the confidence of the people in their Chief Magistrate, makes it his 
duty to spare nothing which can strengthen him with that confi- 
dence." 

In the crowd of official (Occupations which devolve on the Exec- 
utive Magistrate, Mr. Jefferson found time to accomplish a succes- 
sion of private labors and enterprises, which would have been 
enough of themselves, to have exhausted the ordinary measure of 
application and talent. A simple enumeration of the topics on 
which his leisure moments were employed, will suffice to exhibit 
the extent of his voluntary efforts for the improvement and happi- 



484 LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 



ness of the nation. Regular Essays abound in his conespondence 
during this period, on Physics, Law, and Medicine ; on Natural His- 
tory, particularly as connected Avith the aborigines of America ; on 
maxims for ihe regulation and improvement of our Moral Conduct, 
addressed to young men ; on Agriculture, Navigation, and Manu- 
factures ; on Politics and Political Parties, Science, History and Re- 
ligion. In some of those intervals when he could justifiably ab- 
stract himself from the public affairs, his meditations turned upon 
the subject of Christianity. He had some years before promised 
his views of the Christian religion to Dr. Rush, with whom, and 
with Dr. Priestly, he was in habits of harmonious and delightful in- 
tercommunication on the subject. The more he reflected upon it, 
the more, he confessed, ' it expanded beyond the measure of either 
his time or information.' But he availed himself of a day or two, 
while on the road to Monticello, in 1803, to digest in his mind a re- 
markably comprehensive outline, entitled "A Syllabus of an estimate 
of the Merit of the Doctrines of Jesus, compared with those of others." 
This he afterwards wrote out and forwarded to Dr. Rush, in dis- 
charge of his promise, but under a strict injunction of secrecy, to 
avoid the torture of seeing it " disembowelled by the Aruspices of 
Modern Paganism." It embraced a comparative view of the Eth- 
ics of Christianity with those of Judaism, and of ancient Philosophy 
under its most esteemed authors ; particularly Pythagoras, Socrates, 
Epicurus, Cicero, Epictetus, Seneca, Antoninus. The result was, 
such a development of the immeasurable superiority of the doc- 
trines of Christianity, that he declared ' its Author had presented 
to the world a system of morals, which, if filled up in the style and 
spirit of the rich fragments he has left us, would be the most perfect 
and sublime that has ever been taught by man.' Space can only 
be spared for the conclusions he arrived at, which were all on the 
side of Christianity. " They are the result," says he, " of a life of 
inquiry and reflection, and very different frona that anti-Christian 
system imputed to me by those who know nothing of my opinions." 
The question of the Divinity, or Inspiration of Christ, being foreign 
to his purpose, did not enter into the estimate. 

"1. He [Jesus] corrected the Deism of the Jews, confirming them 
in their belief of one only God, and giving them juster notions of 
his attributes and government. 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 485 

• 2. His moral doctrines, relating to kindred and friends, were 
more pure and perfect than those of the most correct of the philoso- 
phers, and greatly more so than those of the Jews ; and they went 
far beyond both in inculcating universal philanthropy, not only to 
kindred and friends, to neighbors and countrymen, but to all man- 
kind, gathering all into one family, under the bonds of love, charity, 
peace, common wants, and cominon aids. A development of this 
head will evince the peculiar superiority of the system of .Tesus over 
all others. 

•' 3. The precepts of philosophy, and of the Hebrew code, laid 
liold of actions only. He pushed his scrutinies into the heart of 
man ; erected his tribunal in the region of his thoughts, and puri- 
fied the waters at the fountain head. 

" 4. He taught, emphatically, the doctrine of a future state, which 
was either doubted, or disbelieved by the Jews ; and wielded it with 
efficacy, as an important incentive, supplementary to the other mo- 
lives to moral conduct." 

The President was in habits at frequent communication with the 
fraternity of literary men spread over the whole earth ; and with vari- 
ous societies in Europe, instituted for benevolent or useful purposes. — 
particularly the Agricultural Society of Paris, and the Board of Agri- 
culture of London, of both of which he was a member. He was in- 
defatigable in endeavoring to obtain the useful discoveries of these 
Societies, as they occurred, and in communicating to them, in re- 
turn, those of the western hemisphere. He imported from France, 
at his own expense, two parcels of Merino sheep, among the first intro- 
duced into this country, with a variety of new inventions in the ag- 
ricultural and mechanic arts, and new articles of culture, which have 
since become of general use in the United States. He transmitted 
to the Society of Paris, in return, several tierces of South Carolina 
rice, for cultivation in France ; and to the Board of Agriculture of 
London, several barrels of the genuine May wheat, of Virginia. 
Some of these exportations happened during the restraints of the 
embargo, and, on its getting into the newspapers, excited a furiou? 
and most ridiculous uproar against the President. His correspond 
ence with the eminent philanthropists of Europe, particularly on 
the subject of Vaccination, at the epoch of the first intelligence of 
that momentous discovery ; his persevering efiforts for introducing 
it into this country, against the weight of scepticism and ridicule 
which it encountered ; and his subsequent correspondence with Dr. 

Waterhouse and others, mingled with eltperimental exertions for 

42 



486 



LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 



establishing and propagating its efficacy, are among the standing 
monuments of his indefetigableness in the general cause of human- 
ity and usefulness, while at the head of the nation. Nor would it 
be justice to omit distinguishing among these disinterested services, 
his eloquent correspondence with the Emperor Alexander, who 
held the bcilance of power in Europe, for the purpose of engaging 
his intercession with the belhgerent nations, to procure a restoration 
and liberalization of neutral rights, under the violations of which 
America was then laboring so critically. The following extract 
from one of his communications to the Emperor, written in the 
spring of 1806, in view of a general pacification then expected to 
be near, displays the ardor of his private endeavours, in aid of the 
public operations, to meliorate the condition of neutral nations. 

"It will be among the latest and most soothing comforts of my 
life, to have seen advanced to the government of so extensive a 
portion of the earth, and at so early a period of his life, a sovereign, 
whose ruling passion is the advancement of the happiness and pros- 
perity of his people ; and not of his own people only, but who can 
extend his eye and his good will to a distant and infant nation^ un- 
offending in its course, unambitious in its views. 

" The events of Europe come to us so late, and so suspiciously, 
that ol^servations on them would certainly be stale, and possibly 
wide of their actual state. From their general aspect, however, I 
collect that your Majesty's interposition in them has been disinter- 
ested and generous, and having in view only the general good of 
the great European family. When you shall proceed to the pacifi- 
cation which is to reestp.blish peace and commerce, the same dis- 
positions of mind will lead you to think of the general intercourse 
of nations, and to make that provision for its future maintenance, 
which in times past, it has so much needed. The northern nations 
of Europe, at the head of which your Majesty is distinguished, are 
habitually peaceable. The United States of America, like them, 
are attached to peace. We have then with tliem a common interest 
in the neutral rights. Every nation, indeed, on the continent of 
Europe, belligerent as well as neutral, is interested in maintaining 
these rights, in liberalizing them progressively with the progress of 
.science and refinement of morality, and in relieving them from re- 
strictions which the extension of the arts has long since rendered 
unreasonable and vexatious. 

" Two personages in Europe, of which your Majesty is one, have 
it in their power, at the approaching pacification, to render eminent 
service to nations in general, by incorporating into the act of pacifi- 
♦•/ation, a correct definition of the rights of neutrals on the high seas. 
rSuch a definition, declared by all the powers lately or still belliger- 



'of THOMAS JEFFERSON. 487 

ent. woukl give to those rights a precision and notoriety, and cover 
them with an authority, which would protect them in an important 
degree against future violation ; and should any further sanction be 
necessary, that of an exclusion of the violating nation from com- 
mercial intercourse with all the others, would be preferred to war, 
as more analogous to the oirence, more easy and hkeiy to be execu 
ted with good faith. The essential articles of these rights, too, are 
so few and simple as easily to be defined. 

'• Having taken no part in the past or existing troubles of Europe, 
we have no pait to act in its pacification. But as principles may 
then be settled in which we have a deep interest, it is a great happi- 
ness for us that they are placed under the protection of an umpire, 
who, looking beyond the narrow bounds of an individual nation, 
will take under the cover of his equity the rights of the absent and 
unrepresented. It is only by a happy concurrence of good charac- 
ters and good occasions, that a step can now and then be taken to 
advance the well being of nations. If the present occasion be good, 
I am sure your Majesty's character will not be wanting to avail the 
world of it. By monuments of such good offices may your life be- 
come an epoch in the history of the condition of man, and may He 
. who called it into being for the good of the human family, give it 
length of days and success, and have it always in his holy keeping." 

The plan of colonizing the free people of color, in some place re- 
mote ficm the United States, originated with Mr. Jefferson, at an 
early period ; and on coming into the office of President, he prose- 
cuted the enteiprise with renewed energy. A correspondence was 
opened between him and Mr. Monroe, then Governor of Virginia ; 
and the first formal proceeding on the subject was made in the Vir- 
ginia Legislature, soon after, to wit, about the year 1803. The 
purpose of his correspondence with Mr. Monroe, is explained in a 
letter from him about ten years afterwards, and published in the 
first annual report of the Colonization Society. He proposed to gain 
admittance to the free people of color, into the establishment at 
Sierra Leone, which then belonged to a private company in Eng- 
land ; or, in failure of that, to procure a situation in some of the 
Portuguese settlements in South America. He wrote to Mr. King, 
then our Minister in London, to apply to the Sierra Leone Compa- 
ny. The application was made, but without success, on the ground 
that the Company was about to dissolve, and reUnquish its posses- 
sions to the government. An attempt to negotiate with the Portu- 
guese Governor, Avas equally abortive, which suspended all active 
measures for a time. But the enterprise was kept ahve by Mr. Jef- 



iS8 LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

ferson, who, by his impressive admonitions of its importance, held 
the Legislature of Virginia firm to its purpose. The subject was 
from time to time discussed, till in the year 1816 a formal resolu- 
tion was passed almost unanimously, being but a repetition of cer- 
tain resolutions which had been adopted in secret session at three 
distinct antecedent periods. It was truly the feeling and voice of 
Virginia, which was followed by the States of Maryland, Tennes- 
see and Georgia. Colonization societies were then for the first 
time formed.* 

In the catalogue of unoflicial services, the improvements and eni- 
heilishments which he showered upon the National Metropolis, are 
not among the least engaging. Almost every thing that is beauti- 
ful in the artificial scenery of Washington, is due to the taste and 
industry of Mr. Jefferson, He planted its walks with trees, and 
strewed its gardens with flowers. He was rarely seen returning 
from his daily excursions on horseback, without bringing some 
branch of tree, or shrub, or bunch of flowers, for the embellishment 
of the infant Capital. He was familiar with every tree and plant- 
from the oak of the forest, to the meanest flower of the valley. The 
willow-oak was among his favoiite trees; and he viJ'as often seen 
standing on his horse gathering the acorns from this tree. Ke had 
it in view to raise a nursery of tiietii, which, when large enough to 
give shade, should be made to adorn the walks of all the avenues 
in the city. In the mean time, he planted them with the Lombar- 
dy poplar, being of the most sudden growth, contented that, though 
he could not enjoy their shade, his successors would. Those who 
have stood on the western portico of the Capitol, and looked down 
the long avenue of a mile in length to the President's house, have 
been struck with the beautiful colonnade of trees which adorns the 
whole distance, on either side. These were all planted under the 
direction of Mr. Jefferson, who often joined in the task with his own 
hands. He always lamented the spirit of extermination which had 
swept off the noble forest trees that overspread Capitol Hill, extend- 
ing down to the banks of the Tiber, and the shores of the Potomac. 
He meant to have converted the grounds into extensive parks and 
gardens. " The loss is irreparable," said he to an European traveller. 
" n9r can the evil be prevented. When I have seen such depreda- 

* N. A, Review, vol. 18, page 41, 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 489 

tions, I have wished for a moment to be a despot, that, in the posses- 
sion of absoUite power, I might enforce the preservation of these val- 
uable groves. Washington might have boasted one of the noblest 
parks, and most beautiful malls, attached to any city in the world." 

Such are a few of the private efforts and enterprises which Mr. 
Jefferson intermingled in the discharge of his public avocations. 
They were performed, too, without any dereliction of the sweets of 
social intercourse, or of literary occupation, which ever constituted 
the predominant passions of his soul. A regular portion of every 
day was devoted to the acquisition of science ; and the most liberal 
portions, to the reception of company, whom he entertained, not 
with the constrained formality inspired by a mere sense of duty, 
but with a cordiality, amenity, and exhilaration, which betokened 
the highest gratification. The brilliancy of his diversified fame 
made Washington the peculiar attraction of strangers, of every de- 
scription and country, during his administration ; which, with the 
irrepressible enthusiasm of partisans and political admirers, wlio 
thronged to pay him their homage, subjected him to extraordinary 
interruptions on the score of company. The facility with which he 
discharged these draughts upon his attention, amidst the complica- 
tion of public and necessary duties, was wont to excite the astonish- 
ment of those who visited him. The impression produced by his 
notice of a remark of a visiter, dropped in the freedom of conver- 
sation, and expressive of surprise at his lacing able to transact the 
public business, amidst such numerous interruptions, is well remem- 
bered to this day by those who heard it. "Sir," said Mr. Jefferson, 
"I have made it a rule, since I have been in public life, never to let 
the sun rise before me, and, before I breakfasted, to transact all the 
business called for by the day." Much of the ease and fidelity with 
which he acquitted himself, under such an accumulation of engage- 
ments, is ascribable to his extraordinary industry and versatility of 
practical talent, but more, perhaps, to system, and a methodical ar- 
rangement of time. So exact were his habits of order, that, in a 
cabinet overflowing with papers, every one was so labelled and ar- 
ranged, as to be capable of access in a moment. 

Mr. Jefferson had long contemplated with eagerness the ap- 
proach of the happy day, which was to relieve him from the "dis- 
tressing burthen of power," and restore him to the enjoyment of his 

family, his books, and his farm. Soon after the commencement of 

42* 



490' LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPirHONS 

iiis second teim, he had requested his fellow citizens to think of a 
successor for him, to whom he declared 'he should deliver the pub- 
lic concerns with greater joy than he received them.' Mr. Madison 
was evidently his first choice, Mr. Monroe his second ; but as the 
public sentiment appeared at first to show some symptoms of vaccil- 
lation between them, he abstained from any agency in deciding its 
final direction ; not only from a principle of duty, but from a desire 
to carry into his retirement the equal cordiality of those, whom he 
fondly cho.racterized as "two principal pillars of his happiness." 
His wishes were successively ratified by the nation, in its successive 
choices ; and their respective administrations, particularly that of 
Mr. Madison, were so nicely conformable to his own, in principle 
and in spirit, that they seemed but a continuation of power in the 
same hands. No higher eulogy could be affixed to the origination 
of a course of administrative policy, than that its authority should 
have been deemed so oracular with the nation, as to have made its 
strict observance by all succeeding Presidents, not only essential to 
their popularity, but absolutely conditional to their continuance be- 
yond the four year's term of probation . When a distinguished French 
citizen, who had visited our country under the golden sway of this 
poMcy, returned to France, one of the first questions which Bonaparte 
asked him, was, ' What kind of a government is that of the United 
States V 'It is one, Sir,' he replied, 'which you can neither feel nor 
see.'' The First Consul asked no more questions ; feeling, that such 
a panegyric on this government, was the severest satire on his. 

'^fhe voice of the nation, under the influence of, a misguided partial- 
ity, was strong and importunate for a re election of him who had 
developed the genius of their government so truly, and modelled its 
character so exquisitely ; but he rejecJed the allurement, in dignified 
and inflexible adherence to a principle which he wished to become 
as inviolable as if incorporated into the Constitution. Not only 
principle, but the strongest of inclinations dictated to him such a 
course. If there was any one sentiment, next to the love of coun- 
try, which was now uppermost in the breast of Mr. Jefierson, it was 
that of his familiar assertion, 'that he never felt so happy as when 
shifting power from his own shoulders upon those of another.' He 
had lived to conduct the vessel of State eight years steadily in her 
course ; to establish and carry through a system of administration 
which he liad originally proposed for the restoration of the govern^ 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 491 

menl lo ils 'republican tack ;' to witness the wiiole body of tiie na- 
tion, except the leaders of the antagonist faction, cordially amalga- 
mated in its support ; and to see in his successor, a guarrantee of 
continued prosperity, order, and maintenance of sound principles. 
What more could he desire l His earthly purposes were answered : 
and he resolved to make the rich consummation the date of his final 
retirement from all public employments. The early impatience 
with which he anticipated the appointed epoch, and the lively satis- 
faction with which he saluted its arrival, as dispersed through his 
private correspondence, realize all that has been written or fancied 
on the moral sublimity of the spectacle of a great nmn voluntarily 
resigning power. 

" I have tired you, my friend, with a long letter. But your tedi- 
um will end in a few lines more. Mine has yet two. years to indure. 
I am tired of an office where I can do no more good than manv 
others, who would be glad to be employed in it. To mvself, per- 
sonally, it brings nothing but unceasing drudgery, and daily loss of 
friends. Every office becoming vacant, every appointment made, 
7ne donne un ingrat, et cent enncniis. My only consolation is in 
the belief, that my fellow citizens at large give me credit for good 
intentions. I will certainly endeavor to merit the continuance of 
that good will which follows well intended actions, and their appro- 
bation wnll be the dearest reward I can carry into retirement.'- 

"At the end of my present term, of which two years are yet to 
come, I propose to retire from public life, and to close n}y da3i's on 
my patrimony of Monticello, in the bosom of my family. I have 
hitherto enjoyed uniform health ; but the weight of public business 
begins to be too heavy for me, and I long for the enjoyment of ru- 
ral hfe, among my books, my farms, and my family. Having per- 
formed my quadragena stipendia, I am entitled to my discharge. 
and should be sorry, indeed, that others should be sooner sensible 
than myself when I ought to ask it." 

" Within a few days I retire to my family, my books, and farms : 
and having gained the harbor myself, I shall look on my friends still 
bufteting the' storm, v/ith anxiety indeed, but not with envy. ]Nev- 
er did a prisoner, released from his chains, feel such relief as I shall 
on shaking off the shackles of power. Nature intended me for the 
tranquil pursuits of science, by rendering them my supreme delight. 
But the enormities of the times in which I have lived, have forced 
me to take a part in resisting them, and to commit myself on the 
boisterous ocean of pohtical passions. I thank God for the oppor- 
tunity of retiring from them without censure, and carrying with me 
the most consoling proofs of public approbation. I leave every thing 



492 LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

in the hands of men so able to take care of them, that if we are des- 
tined to meet misfortunes, it will be because no human wisdom could 
avert them. Should you return to the United States, perhaps your 
curiosity may lead you to visit the hermit of Monticello. He will re- 
ceive you with affection and delight ; hailing you in the mean time 
Avith his affectionate salutations, and assurances of constant esteem 
and respect." 

In the spring of 1809, Mr. Jefferson made his last and gladsome 
retreat to the hermitage of Monticello. He retired from a forty 
years' possession of accumulative honors, and from the summit of 
human popularity, with a mind untainted in its principles, unsophis- 
ticated in its views and feehngs, with the same jealousy of power, 
the same love of equality and abhorrence of aristocracy, and the 
same unbounded confidence in the people. He was sixty-six years 
old. At the same age, singular coincidence, have all the other 
Chief Magistrates retired from office — Washington, Adams, Mad- 
ison, Monroe — except the younger Adams, who wanted but the 
ordinary term of service to complete the same number of years. 

He was accompanied into retirement with the overflowing plau- 
dits and benedictions of his grateful countrymen. Addresses up- 
on addresses, public and private, by political assemblies, religious 
associations, and literary institutions, were showered upon him, ex- 
pressive of enthusiastic approbation of his conduct in the adminis- 
tration of the government, and beaming with affectionate prayers 
for his future tranquillity and happiness. To the citizens of Wash- 
ington who assembled to pay him a farewell tribute of their affection, 
he replied, in a style which betrayed the engrossing sentiments of 
his heart : " I receive with peculiar gratification the affectionate ad- 
dress of the citizens of Washington, and in the patriotic sentiments 
it expresses, I see the true character of the National Metropolis. 
The station which we occupy among the nations of the earth, is 
honorable, but awful. Trusted with the destinies of this soUtary re- 
public of the world, the only monument of human rights, and the 
sole depository of the sacred fire of freedom and self government, 
from hence it is to be lighted up in other regions of the earth, if 
other regions of the earth shall ever become susceptible of its genial 
influence. All mankind ought, then, with us, to rejoice in its pros- 
perovis, and sympathize in its adverse fortunes, as involving every 
thing dear to man. And to what sacrifices of interest, or conven- 
ience, ought not these considerations to animate us ! To what 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 493 

compromises of opinion and inclination, to maintain harmony and 
union among ourselves, and to preserve from all danger this hal- 
lowed ark of human hope and happiness ! That differences of 
opinion should arise among men, on politics, on religion, and on 
every other topic of human enquiry, and that these should be freely 
expressed in a country where all our faculties are free, is to be ex 
pected. But these valuable privileges are much perverted when 
permitted to disturb the harmony of social intercourse, and to lessen 
the tolerance of opinion. To the honor of society here it has been 
characterized by a just and generous liberality : and an indulgence 
of those affections, which, without regard to political creeds, consti- 
tute the happiness of life."' 

The inhabitants of his native county, Albemarle, were eager of 
the occasion to testify those peculiar emotions of gratitude and ven- 
eration, which they felt for their 'illustrious neighbor and friend ;' 
and to welcome hin), in a distinguished manner, 'to those sweets of 
retirement for which he had so often sighed.' With this view, the\' 
formed the determination at a pubhc meeting, to receive him in a 
body ,at the extremity of the county, and conduct him home. 
Fearful, however, lest the zeal of friendship might inflict a wound 
on his characteristic niouesty, they previously submitted to him 
their intention, in reply, he expressed in the most affectionate 
terms his wish, that ' his neighbors would not take so much trouble 
on his account." The idea was accordingly rehnquished. But at a 
subsequent meeting of the inhabitants of the county, an Address 
was unanimously adopted and ordered to be presented to him, in 
which they added to the general gratulations of the nation, their 
particular sensations of love and reverence, in the most afl'ecting 
terms. " As individuals," it concluded, "among whom you were 
raised, and to whom you have at all times been dear, we again wel- 
come your return to your native county, to the bosom of your fami- 
ly, and to tiie affections of those neighbors who have long known, 
aad have long revered you in private life. We assure you. Sir, we 
are not insensible to the many sacrifices you have already made, to 
the various stations which have been assigned you by yom- country ; 
we have witnessed your disinterestedness, and while we feel the 
benefits of your past services, it would be more than ingratitude in 
us, did we not use our best efforts to make your latter days as tran- 
quil and as happy, as your former have been bright and glorious." 



494 LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

To this Address Mr. Jefferson returned the following answer. 

" Returning to the scenes of my birth and early life, to the socie- 
ty of those with whom I was raised, and who have been ever dear 
to me, I receive, fellow citizens and neighbors, wdth inexpressible 
pleasure, the cordial welcome you are so good as to give me. Long 
absent on duties which the history of a wonderful era made incum- 
bent on those called to them, the pomp, the turmoil, the bustle, and 
splendor of office, have drawn but deeper sighs for the tranc|uil and 
irresponsible occupations of private life, for the enjoyment of an af- 
fectionate intercourse with you, my neighbors and friends, and the 
endearments of family love, which nature has given us all, as the 
sweetener of every hour. For these I gladly lay down the distress- 
ing burthen of power, and seek, with my fellow citizens, repose and 
safety under the watchful cares, the labors, and perplexities of 
younger and abler minds. The anxieties you express to administer 
to my happiness, do, of themselves, confer that happiness; and the 
measure will be complete, if my endeavors to fulfil my duties in the 
several public stations to which I have been called, have obtained 
for me the approbation of my country. The part which I have 
acted on the theatre of public life, has been before them ; and to 
their sentence I submit it : but the testimony of my native county, 
of the individuals who have known me in private life, to my con- 
duct in its various duties and relations, is the more grateful, as pro- 
ceeding from eye witnesses and observers, from triers of the vicinnge. 
Of you, then, my neighbors, 1 may ask, in the face of the world, 
' Whose ox have I taken, or whom have I defrauded '? Whom have 
I oppressed, or of whose hand have I received a bribe to blind mine 
eyes therewith ?' On your verdict I rest with conscious security. 
Your Avishes for my happiness are received with just sensibility, and 
I offer sincere prayers for your own welfare and prosperity." 

Among the numerous testimonials of the public gratitude, elicited 
on this gratifying occasion, the ' valedictory address of the General 
Assembly of Virginia,' is deservedly the most distinguished. It is 
too rich a docimient intrinsically, and too proudly associated with 
the reputation of him whose merits it was intended to commemo- 
rate, not to require an insertion. It was agreed to by both Houses, 
on the 7th of February, 1S09. 

" Sir, — The General x\ssembly of your native State cannot close 
their session, without acknowledging your services in the office 
which you are just about to lay down, and bidding you a respectful 
and affectionate farewell. 

"We have to thank you for the model of an administration con- 
ducted on the purest principles of republicanism ; for pomp and 
state laid aside ; patronage discarded ; internal taxes abolished ; a 
host of superfluous officers disbanded ; the monarchic maxim that 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 495 

'a national debt is a national blessing,' renounceci, and more than 
thirty-three millions of our debt discharged ; the native right to 
nearly one hundred millions of acres of our national domain extin- 
guished ; and, without the guilt or calamities of conquest, a vast 
and fertile region added to our country, far more extensive than her 
original possessions, bringing along with it the Mississippi and the 
port of Orleans, the trade of the West to the Pacific ocean, and in 
the intrinsic value of the land itself, a source of permanent and al- 
most inexhaustible revenue. These are points in your administra- 
tion which the historian will not fail to seize, to expand, and teach 
posterity to dwell upon with delight. Nor will he forget our peace 
with the civilized world, preserved through a season of vmcommon 
difficulty and trial ; the good will cultivated with the unfortunate 
aborigines of our country, and the civilization humanely extended 
among them ; the lesson taught the inhabitants of the coast of Bar- 
bary, that we have the means of chastising their piratical encroach- 
ments, and awing them into justice; and that theme, on which, 
above all others, the historic genius will hang with rapture, the hb- 
erty of speech and of the press, preserved inviolate, without which 
genius and science are given to man in vain. 

" In the principles on which you have administered the govern- 
ment, we see only the continuation and maturity of the same vir- 
tues and abilities, which drew upon you in your youth the resent- 
ment of Dunmore. From the first brilliant and happy moment of 
your resistance to foreign tyranny, until the present day, we mark 
with pleasure and with gratitude the same uniform, consistent char- 
acter, the same warm and devoted attachment to hberty and the re- 
public, the same Roman love of your country, her rights, her peace, 
her honor, her prosperity. 

"How blessed will be the retirement into which you are about to 
go ! How deservedly blessed will it be ! For you carry with you the 
richest of all rewards, the recollection of a life well spent in the ser- 
vice of your country, and proofs the most decisive, of the love, the 
gratitude, the veneration of your countrymen. 

" That your retirement may be as happy as your life has been 
virtuous and useful ; that our youth may see, in the blissful close 
of your days, an additional inducement to form themselves on your 
model, is the devout and earnest prayer of your fellow-citizens who 
compose the General Assembly of Virginia." 

Thus terminated the political career of one who had been a prin- 
cipal agent of two Revolutions, and an eye-witness of a third, gener- 
ated in the prolific womb of the first ; of one who, from his entrance 
into manhood, had continued the unyielding advocate of princi- 
ciples, which, first discarded, next endured, then embraced, had 
eventually swayed the destinies of his country through the perilous 



496 LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

and successive convulsions of transformation from a monarchical to a 
free structure of government, and of deliverance from the fatal catas- 
trophe of a counter-revolution, in the last extremities of exhaustion, 
despair, and self-abandonment ; who had lived to see the potent en- 
ergies of those principles so extensively transfused into the very syc- 
ophants of the tyrants of the old world, temporal and spiritual, as 
that the earth was every where shaking under their feet ; and who, 
at last, enjoyed the ineffable consummation of seeing his name be- 
come the synonym of political ortliodoxy at home, and the watch- 
word of the isolated aspirants for its attainment, in all parts of the 
civiHzed world. 

" Bright are the memories linkM with thee, 
Boast of a glory-hallowed land, 
Hope o? the valiant and the free." 

Thus had he performed his wonderful course, and thus, full of 
years, and covered with glory, in the rich fruition of his earliest and 
sweetest aspirations, he was ready, as to all political affairs, to utter 
his favorite invocation : Nunc cUmittas, Domine — '*Lord, now let- 
test thou thy servant depart in peace.' 



CHAPTER XIV. 

In repairing with so much eagerness to the shades of his native 
mountains, it seems not to have entered the mind of Mr. Jefferson 
to relax his efforts for the benefit and happiness of mankind, but to 
divert them into a channel more analogous to his disposition. His 
whole hfe, he was in the habit of remarking, had been at war with 
his natural taste, feeUngs and wishes. Circumstances had led him 
. along, step by step, the path he had trodden, and like a bow long 
bent, when unstrung, he resumed with delight the character and 
pursuits for which nature designed him. His was not the retire- 
ment of one who sought refuge from the pangs of disappointed 
ambition, and the world's mockery of them, in the vain, though 
vaunted resource of obhvion and stoical insensibility ; or who cov- 
eted repose from the giddy turbulence of the scene, to indulge in 
inglorious indolence and inanity. No, his was the voluntary seclu- 
sion of one, "who," as it has been beautifully said, "had well filled 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. -497 

a noble part in public life, from which he was prepared and anxious 
to withdraw ; who sought retirement to gratify warm affections, 
and to enjoy his well earned fame ; who desired to turn those 
thoughts which had been necessarily restrained and hmited, to the 
investigation of all the sources of human happiness and enjoyment ; 
who felt himself surrounded, in his fellow citizens, by a circle of af- 
fectionate friends, and had not to attribute to a rude expulsion from 
the theatre of ambition, his sincere devotion to the pursuits of agri- 
culture and philosophy ; and who, receiving to the last moment of 
his existence continued proofs of admiration and regard, which pen- 
etrated his remote retirement, devoted the remainder of his days to 
record those various reflections for which the materials had been 
collected and treasured up, unknown to himself, on the long and 
various voyage of his life." 

To do justice to the remaining portion of Mr. Jefferson's life. 
which is fitly described as having been appropriated ' to the investi- 
gation of all the sources of human happiness and enjoyment,' would 
exceed the competency of any one not conversant with his daily 
avdcations, and admitted into all the mysteries of his mighty cabi- 
net. In the possession of undecayed intellectual powers, and a 
physical strength unsubdued by the labors which ' the history of a 
wonderful era had made incumbent on him,' he devoted the rem- 
nant of his days to the precious employment of unlocking all the 
store-houses of human knowledge, and dispensing their rich treas- 
ures to the generation who had succeeded him*on the theatre 
of public affairs ; and to laying the foundations for the still greater 
extension of science, and indigenous political philosophy, for the ben- 
efit of the still succeeding generations who should rise up, in per- 
pehmm, and assume the direction of the interests of society, by the 
establishment of a Colossean Seminary of learning, which should 
rival the institutions of Cambridge and Oxford. These were his 
wisest, if not his happiest, days. The streams of oracular wisdom 
which flowed from his consecrated retreat, have continued to nour- 
ish the principles of the noble fabric which he reared, and to pre- 
serve from degeneracy those who have successively been constitu- 
ted the depositories of its sacred functions. May the time never ar- 
rive when they shall cease to maintain their ascendency in the couu- 
cils of the nation, and to exert their healthful and restraining inflji 
ence over its authorities. To give place for a series of selection- 

43 



498 LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

from his cabinet, developing the opinions of the Monticellean phi- 
losopher, on questions the most interesting and important to man- 
kind, and which have not yet been brought into special review ; 
liis observations on the distinguished characters with whom he act- 
ed, or came in contact, in the course of his various career : on the 
parties and pohticai occurrences of the passing day ; his daily oc- 
cupations and habits of Uving, &.c. — expressed in the freedom of pri- 
vate and unrestrained confidence, seems the most satisfactory meth- 
od of supplying that portion of his history, for which the materials 
are of too abstract a nature to be adapted to historical narrative. 
The quotations must be necessarily limited, broken, and in some 
ruses, perhaps, insufficient to convey a perfect idea of the writer's 
opinions. 

Relative powers of the General and State govern- 
ments. — " With respect to our State and Federal governments, J 
do not think their relations correctly understood by foreigners. 
They generally suppose the former subordinate to the lattei. But 
this is not the case. They are co-ordinate departments of one sim- 
})lc and integral whole. To the State governments are reserved all 
le-^islation and administration, in affairs which concern their own 
citizens only, and to the Federal government is given whatever con- 
cerns foreigners, or the citizens of other States ; these functions alone 
heinf made federal. The one is the domestic, the other the for- 
eign%ranch of the same government ; neither having control over 
the other, but within its own department. There are one or twt) 
exceptions only to this partition of power. Bat you may ask, if the 
two "departments should claim each the same subject of power, 
^vherc is the common umpire to decide ultimately between them? 
]n cases of little importance or urgency, the prudence of both parties 
will keep them aloof from the questionable ground : but if it can 
neither be avoided nor compromised, a convention of the States 
nmst be called, to ascribe the doubtful power to that department 
which they may think best." 

Relative powers of each branch in the General gov- 
ernment. — '-You seem to think it devolved on the judges to de- 
cide on the validity of the sedition law. But not,hing in the con- 
stitution has given them a right to decide for the executive, more 
than to the executive to decide for them. Both magistracies are 
equally independent in the sphere of action assigned to them. 
The fudges, believing the law constitutional, had a right to pass a 
sentence'of fine and imprisonment ; because the power was placed 
in their hands by the constitution. But the executive, believing the 
law to be unconstitutional, w^ere bound to remit the execution of it; 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 



49& 



bsc^ause that power has been confided to them by the constitution. 
That inatruin^iit meant that its co-ordinate branches should be 
checks on each other. But the opinion which gives to the judges? 
the right to decide what laws are constitutional, and what not, not 
only for themselves in their own sphere of action, but for the legisl.-i- 
ture and executive also in their spheres, would make the judiciary a 
despotic branch." 

"If this opinion be sound j then indeed is our constitution a com- 
plete felo de se. For intending to establish three departments, co- 
ordinate and independent, that they might check and balance one 
another, it has given, according to this opinion, to one of them alone, 
the right to prescribe rules for the gov^ernmant of the others, and to 
that one too, which is unelected by, and independent of the nation. 
For experience has already shown that the impeachment it has pro- 
vided is not even a scare-crow ; that such opinions as the one you 
combat, sent cautiously out, as you observe also, by detachment, not 
belonging to the case often, but sought for out of it, as if to rally 
the public opinion beforehand to their views, and to indicate the line 
they are to v/alk in, have been so quietly passed over as never to 
have excited animadversion, even in a speech of any one of the 
body entrusted with impeachment. The constitution, on this hy- 
pothesis, is a mere thing of wax in the hands of the judiciary, which 
they may twist and shape into any form they please. It should be 
remembered, as an axiom of eternal truth in politics, that whatever 
power in any govermnent is independent, is absolute also ; in theo- 
ry only, at first, while the spirit of the people is up, but in practice, 
as fast as that relaxes. Independence can be trusted no where but 
with the people in mass. They are inherently independent of all 
but moral law." 

Tendencies to consolidation, and mode of resistance. 
— " I see as you do, and with the deepest affliction, the rapid strides 
with which the federal branch of our government is advancing to- 
wards the usurpation of all the rights reserved to the States, and 
the consolidation in itself of all powers, foreign and domestic ; and 
that too, by constructions which, if legitimate, leave no limits to their 
power. Take together the decisions of the federal court, the doctrines 
of the President, [1825] and the misconstructions of the constitution- 
al compact acted on by the legislature of the federal branch, and it is 
but too evident, that the three ruling branches of that department are 
in combination to strip their colleagues, the State authorities, of the 
powers reserved by them, and to exercise themselves all functions, for- / 
eign and domestic. Under the power to regulate commerce, they as- 
sume indefinitely that also over agriculture and manufactures, and 
call it regulation to take the earnings of one of these branches of in- 
dustry, and that too the most depressed, and put them into the pock- 
els of the other, the most flourishing of all. Under the authority to 



50(1 LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

establish post roads, they claim that of cutting down mountains for the 
construction of roads, of digging canals, and aided by a little sophis- 
try on the words ' general welfare,' a right to do, not only the acts to 
effect that, which are specifically enumerated and permitted, but 
whatsoever they shall think or pretend will be for the general wel- 
fare. And what is our resource for the preservation of the constitu- 
tion ? Reason and argument ? You might as well reason and 
argue with the marble columns encircling them. The representa- 
tives chosen by ourselves ? They are joined in the combination, 
some from incorrect views of government, some from corrupt ones, 
sufficient, voting together, to outnumber the sound parts ; and with 
majorities only of one, two, or three, bold enough to go forward in 
defiance. Are we then to stand to our arms, with the hot-headed 
Georgian ? No. That must be the last resource, not to be thought 
of until much longer and greater sufferings. If every infraction of 
a compact of so many parties is to be resisted at once, as a dissolu- 
tion of it, none can ever be formed which would last one year. 
We must have patience and longer endurance then wath our breth- 
ren while under delusion ; give them time for reflection and expe- 
rience of consequences : keep ourselves in a situation to profit by 
the chapter of accidents ; and separate from our companions onl}- 
when the sole alternatives left, are the dissolution of our Union with 
them, or submission to a government without limitation of powers. 
Between these two evils, when we must make a choice, there can 
be no hesitation. But in the mean while, the States would be 
watchful to note every material usurpation on their rights ; to de- 
nounce them as they occur in the most peremptory terms ; to pro- 
test against them as wrongs to which our present submission shall 
be considered, not as acknowledgments or precedents of right, but 
as a temporary yielding to the lesser evil, until their accumulation 
shall overweigh that of separation. I would go still further, and 
give to the federal member, by a regular amendment of the consti 
tution, a right to make roads and canals of intercommunication be- 
tween the States, providing sufficiently against corrupt practices in 
Congress, (log rolling, 6cc.) by declaring that the federal proportion 
of each State of the monies so employed, shall be in works within 
the State, or elsewhere with its consent, and with a due salvo of 
jurisdiction. This is the coiu-se which I think safest and best as 
yet." 

Internal improvement, constructive interpretation.s, 
&c. — " You will have learned that an act for internal improvement. 
after passing both Houses, was negatived by the President [1817.] 
The act was founded, avowedly, on the principle that the phrase in 
the constitution, which authorizes Congress 'to lay taxes, to pay the 
debts and provide for the general welfare,' was an extension of the 
powers specifically enumerated to whatever would promote the gen- 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 501 

eral welfare ; and this, you know, was the federal doctrine. Where- 
as, our tenet ever was, and, indeed, it is almost the only land-mark 
which now divides the federalists from the republicans, that Con- 
gress had liot unlimited powers to provide for the general welfare, 
but were restrained to those specifically enumerated ; and that, as 
it was never meant they should provide for that welfare but by the 
exercise of the enumerated powers, so it could not have been meant 
they should raise money for purposes which the enumeration did not 
place under their action : consequently, that the specification of 
powers is a limitation of the purposes for which they may raise 
money. I think the passage and rejection of this bill a fortunate in- 
cident. Every State will certainly concede the power ; and this 
will be a national confirmation of the grounds of appeal to them, 
and will settle for ever the meaning of this phrase, which, by a mere 
grammatical quibble, has countenanced the General government 
in a claim of universal power." 

"I have for some time considered the question of internal im- 
piovement as desperate. The torrent of general opinion sets so 
strongly in favor of it as to be irresistible. And I suppose that even 
the opposition in Congress will hereafter be feeble and formal, unless 
something can be done which may give a gleam of encouragement 
to our friends, or alarm their opponents in their fancied security. 1 
learn from Richmond, that those who think with us there, are in a 
state of perfect dismay, not knowing what to do, or what to propose. 
Mr. Gordon, our representative, particularly, has written to me in 
very desponding terms, not disposed to yield, indeed, but pressing 
for opinions and advice on the subject. I have no doubt you are 
pr(issed in the same way, and I hope you have devised and recom- 
nKjnded something to them. If you have, stop here and read no 
more, but consider all that follows as non avenue. I shall be better 
satisfied to adopt implicitly any thing which you may have advised, 
than any thing occurrir.g to myself. For I have long ceased to 
think on subjects of this kind, and pay little attention to puljhc pro- 
ceedings. But if you have clone nothing in it, then I risk for your 
consideration what has occurred to me, and is expressed in the en- 
closed paper. Bailey's. propositions, which came to hand since 1 
wrote the paper, and which I suppose to have come from the Presi- 
dent Iiimself, show a little hesitation in the purposes of his party: 
'and in that state of mind, a bolt shot critically may decide the con- 
test, by its effect on the less bold. The olive-branch held out tc» 
them at this moment me^y be accepted, and the constitution thus 
saved at a moderate sacrifice. I say nothing of the paper, v/hich 
will explain itself. The following heads. of consideration, or some 
of them, may weigh in its favor : It may intimidate the wavering. 
It may break the western coalition, by offering the same thing in a 
different form. It will be viewed with favor in contrast' with the 
Georgia opposition and fear of strengthening that. It will be aa 

43* 



502 LIFE, "WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

example of a temperate mode of opposition in future and similar ca- 
ses. It will delay the mea:5ure a year at least. It will give us the 
chance of better times and of intervening- accidents ; and in noway 
place us in a worse than olu- present situation. I do not dwell on 
these topics ; your mind will develope them."* 

Domestic Manufactures. — " I have now thirty -five spindles 
a going, a hand carding-machine, and looms with the Hying shut- 
tie, for the supply of my own farms, which v/ill never be relinquish- 
ed in my time. The continuance ol^ the war will fix tlie habit gen 
erally, and out of the evils of impressment and of the oVders of coun- 
cil, a great blessing for us will grow. I have not formerly been an 
advocate for great manufactories. I doubted whether pur labor, em- 
ployed in agriculture, and aided by* the spontaneou,s dnergies of the 
earth, would not procure us more than we could make ourselves of 
other necessaries. But other considerations entering into the ques- 
tion, have settled my doubts." 

" You tell me I am quoted by those who wish to continue our de- 
pendance on England for manufactures. There was a time when 
I might liave been so quoted with more candor. But within the 
thirty years which have since elapsed, how are circumstances chang- 
ed ! We were then in peace ; our independent place among na- 
tions was acknowledged. A commerce which ofiered the raw ma- 
terial, in exchange for the san^e material after receiving the last 
touch of industry, v/as worthy of welcome to all nations. It was 
expected, that those especially to whom manufacturing industiy 
was important, would cherish the friendship of such customers by 
every favor, and particularly cultivate their peace by every act ot 
justice and friendship. Under this proa-pcct, the question seemed 
legitimate, whether, with such an iimnensity of unimproved land. 
i-o-urting the hand of husbandry, the industry of agriculture, or that 
i)f manufactures, would add most to the national wealth. And the 
doubt on the utility of the American manufactures was entertained 
on. this consideration, chiefly, that to the labor of the husbandman a 
vast addition is .made by the spontaneous energies of the earth on 
which it is employed. For one grain \of wheat committed to the 
oarth, she renders twenty, thirty, and tn'en fifty fold ; whereas to 
the labor of the manufacturer nothing is\added. Pounds of llax, in 
his hands, on the contrary, yield but pei-iny weights of lace. This 
exchange, too, laborious as it might seem, what a field did it prom 
ise for the occupation of the ocean ; what a nursery for that class of 



* Appended to tlie above letter, is a luminous and powerful instrument, in- 
tended to be submitted to the Leffislature of Virg-inia for their adoption, enti- 
tlpd, " The Solemn Declaration and Protest of 'lie Commonweallli of Virginia, 
on tlie Principles of tiie Constitution of the United States of America, and on 
the Violations of them." The mode of redress recommended was equally op- 
posed to " nullification," and to passive acquiescence. 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 503 

citizens who were to exercise and maintain our equal rights on that 
element ! This was the state of things in 1785, when the NotCoon 
Virginia were first pubhshed ; when, the ocean being open to all 
nations, and their common right in it acknowledged and exercised 
under regulations sanctioned by the assent and usage of ail, it was 
thought tliat the doulit might, claim some consideration. 

" But who, in 1785, could foresee the ra.pid depravity wliich was 
to render the close of that century a disgrace to the history of man ? 
Who could have imagined that the two most distinguished in the 
rank of nations, for science and civilization, would have suddenly 
descended from that honorable eminence, and setting at defiance all 
those moral laws established by the Author of Nature between na- 
tion and nation, as between man and man, would cover earth and^ 
sea with robberies and piracies, merely because strong enough to do 
it mth temporal impunity, and that under this disbandment of na- 
tions from social order, we should have been despoiled of a thousand 
ships, and have thousands of our citizens reduced to Algerine slav- 
ery. Yet all this has taken place. The British interdicted to our 
vessels all harbors of the globe, without having first proceeded to 
someone of hers, there paid a tribute proportioned to the cargo, and 
obtained her license to proceed to the port of destination. The 
French declared them to be lawful prize if they had touched at the 
port, or been visited by a ship of the enemy nation. Thus were we 
completely excluded from the ocean. Compare this state of things 
with that of '85, and say whether an opinion founded in the circum- 
stances of that day, can be fairly applied to those of the present. We 
have experienced, what we did not then believe, that there exist 
both profligacy and power.enough to exclude us from the field of in- 
terchange with other nations. That to be independent for the com- 
forts of life, we must fabricate them ourselves. We must now place 
the manufacturer by the side of the agriculturalist. The former 
question is suppressed, or rather assumes a new form. The grand 
inquiry now is. Shall we make our own comforts, or go without 
them at the will of a foreign nation ? He, therefore, who is now 
against domestic manufacture, must be for reducing us either to de- 
pendence on that foreign nation, or to be clothed in skins, and to 
live like wild beasts in dens and caverns. I am not one of these. 
Experience has taught me that manufactures are now as necessary 
to our independence as to our comfort ; and if those who quote me 
as of a different opinion, will keep pace Vv-ith me in purchasing 
nothing foreign, where an equivalent of domestic fabric can be ob- 
tained, without regard to difierence of price, it will not be our fault 
if we do not soon have a supply at home equal to our demand, and 
wrest that weapon of distress from the hand which has so long wan- 
tonly wielded it. If it shall be proposed to go beyond our own sup- 
ply, the question of '85 will then recur. Will our surplus labor be 
then more beneficially employed, in the culture of the earth, or in 



504 LIFE, M'^RITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

the fabrications of ait ? We have time yet for consideration, before 
that question will press upon us ; and the axiom to be applied will 
depend on the circumstances which shall then exist. For in so 
complicated a science as political economy, no one axiom can be 
laid down as wise and expedient for all times and circumstances, 
inattention to this is what has called for this explanation, which 
reflection would have rendered unnecessary with the candid, while 
nothing w^ill do it with those who use the former opinion only as a 
stalking-horse to cover their disloyal propensities to keep us in eter- 
nal vassalage to a foreign and unfriendly people." 

Laboring Classes, Agriculture. — " These circum.stances 
iiave long since produced an overcharge in the class of competitors 
for learned occupation, and great distress among the supernumerary 
candidates ; and the more, as their habits of life have disquahfied 
them for re-entering into the laborious class. The evil cannot be 
suddenly, nor perhaps ever entirely cured ; nor should I presume to- 
say by what means it may be cured. Doubtless there are many 
engines which the nation might bring to bear on this object. Pub • 
lie opinion and public encouragement are among these. The class 
principally defective is that of agriculture. It is the first in utility, 
and ought to be the first in respeet. The same artificial means 
which have been used to produce a competition in learning, may 
be equally successful in restoring agriculture to its primary dignity 
in the eyes of men. It is a science of the very first order. It counts 
among its handmaids the mpst respectable sciences, such as Chem- 
istry, Natural Philosophy, Mechanics, Mathematics generally, Nat- 
ural History, Botany. In every College and University, a profes- 
sorship of agriculture, and the class of its students, might be honor- 
ed as the first. Young men closing their academical education 
with this, as the crown of all other sciences, fascinated with its solid 
charms, and at a time when they are to choose an occupation, in- 
stead of crowding the other classes, would return to the farms of 
their fathers, their own, or those of others, and replenish and invig- 
orate a calling, now languishing under contempt and oppression. 
The charitable schools, instead of storing their pupils with a lore 
which the present state of society does not call for, converted into 
schools of agriculture, might restore them to that branch, qualified 
to enrich and honor themselves, and to increase the productions of 
the nation instead of consuming them. A gradual abolition of the 
useless offices, so much accumulated in all governments, might 
close this drain also from the labors of the field, and lessen the bur- 
thens imposed on them. By these, and the better means which 
will occur to others, the surcharge of the learned, might in time be 
drawn off to recruit the laboring class of citizens, the sum of indus- 
try be increased, and that of misery diminished." 

National Bank. — " From a passage in the letter of the Presi- 
dent, I observe an idea of estabhshiug a branch bank of the United 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 



505 



States ill New Orleans. This institution is one of the most deadly 
hostility existing, against the principles and form of our constitu- 
tion. The nation is, at this time, so strong and united in its senti- 
ments, that it cannot be shaken at this moment. But suppose a se- 
ries of untoward events should occur, sufficient to bring into doubt 
the competency of a republican government to meet a crisis of great 
danger, or to unhinge the confidence of the people in the public 
functionaries ; an institution like this, penetrating by its branches 
every part of the Union, acting by command and in phalanx, may, 
in a critical moment, upset the government. I deem no govern- 
ment safe which is under the vassalage of an}' self-constituted au- 
thorities, or any other authority than that of the nation, or its regu- 
lar functionaries. What an obstruction could not this bank of the 
United States, with all its branch banks, be in time of war 1 It 
might dictate to us the peace we should accept, or withdraw its aids. 
Ought we then to give further growth to an institution so {powerful,, 
so hostile ? That it is so hostile we know, 1. from a knowledge of 
the principles of the persons composing the body of directors in ev- 
ery bank, principal or branch ; and those of most of the stock-hold- 
ers : 2. from their opposition to the measures and principles of the 
government, and to the election of those friendly to them : and, 3^ 
from the sentiments of the newspapers they support. Nov*\ while 
we are strong, it is the greatest duty we owe to the safetyof our con- 
atitution, to bring this powerful enemy to a perfect subordination un- 
der its authorities. The first measure would be to reduce them to 
an equal footing only with other banks, as to the favors of the gov- 
ernment. But, in order to be able to meet a general combination 
ol the banks against us, in a critical emergency, could we not make 
a beginning towards an independent use of our own money, to- 
wards holding our own bank in all the deposits where it is received^ 
and letting the Treasurer give his draft or note for payment at any 
particular place, which, in a well conducted governmeni:,. ought tO' 
have as much credit as any private draft, or bank note, or bill, and 
would give us the same facilities which Ave derive from the banks ? 
I pray you to turn this subject in your mind, and give it the benefit 
of your knowledge of details; whereas, I have only very geaeral 
views of the subject." 

Political Parties. — " I know too well the vreaknes-s and nn 
certainty of human reason, to wonder at its different results. Both 
of our political parties, at least the honest part of them, agree con- 
scientiously in the same object, the public good : but they diifer es- 
sentially in what they deem the means of promoting that good. 
One side believes it best done by one composition of the governing 
powers ; the other, by a diflferent one. One fears most the ignor- 
ance of the people ; the other, the selfishness of rulers independent 
of them. Which is right, time and experience will prove. We 
think that one side of this experiment has been long enough tried, 



506 



LIFE, WRITINGS. AND OPINIONS 



and proved not to promote the good of tlie many : and that the 
other has not been fairly and sufficiently tried. Our opponents 
think the reverse. With whichever opinion the body of the na- 
tion concurs, that must prevail. My anxieties on this subject 
will never carry me beyond the use of fair and honorable means 
of truth and reason ; nor have they ever lessened my esteem 
for moral worth, nor aUenated my affections from a single friend, 
who did not first withdraw liimself. Wherever this has happened. 
J confess I have not been insensible to it : yet have ever kept my- 
self open to a return of their justice." 

" I learn from that with great pleasure, that you have resolved 
on continuing your history of parties. Our opponents are far ahead 
of us in preparations for placing their cause favorably before poster 
ity. Yet I hope even from some of them the escape of precious 
truths, in angry explosions or eflTiisions of vanity, which will betray 
the genuine monarchism of their principles. They do not them- 
selves believe what they endeavor to inculcate, that we were an op- 
position party, not on principle, but merely seeking for office. The 
fact is, that at the formation of our government, many had formed 
their political opinions on European writings and practices, believ- 
ing the experience of old countries, and especially of England, abu- 
sive as it was, to be a safer guide than mere theory. The doctrines 
of Europe were, that men in numerous associations cannot be re- 
strained within the limits of order and justice, but by forces physic- 
al and moral, wielded over them by authorities independent of their 
will. Hence their organization of kings, hereditary nobles, and 
priests. Still further to constrain the brute force of the people, they 
deem it necessary to keep them down by hard laboi', poverty, and 
ignorance, and to take from them, as from bees, so much of their 
earnings, as that unremitting labor shall be necessary to obtain a 
sufficient surplus barely to sustain a scanty and miserable life. And 
these earnings they apply to maintain their privileged orders in splen- 
dor and idleness, to fascinate the eyes of the people, and excite in 
them an humble adoration and submission, as to an order of supe- 
rior beings. Although few among us had gone all these lengths of 
oj)inion, yet many had advanced, some more, some less, on the way. 
And in the convention which formed our government, they endeav- 
ored to draw the cords of power as tight as they could obtain them, 
to lessen the dependence of the general functionaries on their con- 
stituents, to subject to them those of the States, and to weaken their 
means of maintaining the steady equilibrium which the majority of 
the convention liad deemed salutary for both branches, general and 
local. To recover, therefore, in practice, the powers which the na- 
tion had refused, and to warp to their own wishes those actually 
given, was the steady object of the federal party. Ours, on the con- 
trary, was to maintain the will of the majority of the convention, 
and of the people themselves. We believed, with them, that man 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 507 

was a rational animal, endowed Iv/ nature with rights, and with an 
innate sense of justice ; and that he could be restrained fiom wrong 
and protected in right, by moderate powers, confided to persons of 
his own choice, and held to their duties by dependence on his own 
will. We believed that the complicated organization of kings, np- 
bles, and priests, was not the wisest nor best to effect the happiness 
of associated man ; that wisdom and virtue were not hereditary ; 
that the trappings of such a machinery consumed, by their expense, 
tliose earnings of industry they were meant to protect, and, by the 
inequalities they produced, exposed liberty to sufferance. We be- 
Ueved that men, enjoying in ease and security the full fruits of their 
own industry, enlisted by all their interests on the side of law and 
order, habituated to think for themselves, and to follow their rea- 
son as their guide, would be more easily and safely governed, than 
with minds nourished in error, and vitiated and debased, as in Eu- 
rope, by ignorance, indigence, and oppression. The cherishment 
of the people then was our principle, the fear and distrust of them, 
that of the other part}'. Composed, as we v/ere, of the landed and 
laboring interests of the country, we could not be less anxious for a 
government of law and order than were the inhabitants of the cities, 
the stiong holds of federalism. And whether our efforts to save 
the principles and form of our constitution have not been salutary, 
let the present republican freedom, order, and prosperity of our coun- 
try determine. History may distort truth, and will distort it for a 
time, by the superior efforts at justification of those who are conscious 
of needing it most. Nor will tlie opening scenes of our present 
government be seen in their true aspect, until the letters of the day, 
now held in private hoards, shall be broken up and laid open to 
public view. What a treasure will be found in General Washing- 
ton's cabinet, when it shall pass into the hands of as candid a friend 
to truth as he was himself ! When no longer, hke Csesar's notes 
and memorandums in the hands of Anthony, ii shall be open to the 
high priests of federalism only, and garbled to say so much, jmd no 
more, as suits their views !" 

" The Hartford Convention, the victory of Orleans, the peace of 
Ghent, prostrated the name of federalism. Its votaries abandoned 
it through shame and mortification ; and now call themselves re- 
publicans. But the name alone is changed, the principles are the 
same. For in truth, the parties of Whig and Tory are those of na- 
ture. They exist in ail countries, whether called by these names, 
or by those of Aristocrats and Democrats, Cote Droite and Cote 
Gauche, Ultras and Radicals, Serviles and Liberals. The sickly, 
weakly, timid man, fqars the people, and is a tory by nature. The 
healthy, strong, and bold, cherishes them, and is formed a whig by 
, nature. On the eclipse of federalism with us, although not its ex- 
tinction, its leaders got up the Missouri question, under the false 
front of lessening the measure of slavery, but with the real view of 



608 LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

producing a geographical division of parties, which might insure 
them the next President. Tlie people of the north went bUndfold 
into the snare, followed their leaders for a while with a zeal truly 
moral and laudable, until they became sensible that they were in- 
juring instead of aiding the real interests of the slaves, that they 
had been used merely as tools for electioneering purposes ; and that 
trick of hypocrisy then fell as quickly as it had been got up. To 
that is now succeeding a distinction, which, like that of republican 
and federal, or whig and tory, being equally intermixed through ev- 
ery State, threatens none of those geographical schisms which go 
immediately to a separation. The line of division now is the pre- 
servation of State rights as reserved in the constitution, or by strain- 
ed constructions of that instrument, to merge all into a consolidated 
government. The tories are for strengthening the executive and 
General government ; the Avhigs cherish the representative branch, 
and the rights reserved by the States, as the bulwark against con- 
solidation, which must immediately generate monarchy." 

Sovereigns of Europe, — "When I observed, however, that the 
King of England was a cipher, I did not mean to confine the observa- 
tion to the mere individual now on that throne. The practice of 
Kings marrying only into the families of Kings, has been that of Eu- 
rope for some centuries. Now, take any race of animals, confine them 
in idleness and inaction, whether in a sty, a stable, or a state-room, 
pamper them with high diet, gratify all their sexual appetites, im- 
merse them in sensualities, nourish their passions, let every thing 
bend before them, and banish whatever might lead them to think, 
and in a few generations they become all body, and no mind : and 
this, too, by a law of nature, by that very law by which we are in 
the constant practice of changing the characters and propensities of 
the animals we raise for our own purposes. Such is the regimen 
in raising Kings, and in this way they have gone on for centuries. 
While in Europe, I often amused myself with contemplating the 
characters of the then reigning sovereigns of Europe. Louis the 
XVI. was a fool, of my owm knowledge, and in despite of the an- 
swers made for him at his trial. The King of Spain was a fool, 
and of Naples the same, They passed their lives in hunting, and 
despatched two couriers a week, one thousand miles, to let each oth- 
er know what game they had killed the preceding days. The 
King of Sardinia was a fool. All these were Bourbons. The 
Queen of Portugal, a Braganza, was an idiot by nature. And so 
was the King of Denmark. Their sons, as regents, exercised the 
powers of government. The King of Prussia, successor to the great 
Frederick, was a mere hog in body as well as in mind. Gustavus 
of Sweden, and Joseph of Austria, were really crazy, and George 
of England you know was in a straight waistcoat. There remain- 
ed, then, none but old Catharine, who had been too lately picked 
up to have lost her common sense. In this state Bonaparte found 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 



509- 



Europe ; and it was this state of its rulers wliich lost it with scarce 
a struggle. These animals had become without mind and power- 
less ; and so will every hereditary monarch be after a few genera- 
lions. Alexander, the grandson of Catherine, is as yet an excep- 
tion. He is able to hold his own. But he is only of the third gen- 
eration. His race is not yet worn out. And so endeth the book of 
Kings, from all of whom the Lord deliver us, and have you, my 
friend, and all such good men and true, in his holy keeping." 

Portraiture OF Washington. — "You say that in taking 
General Washington on your shoulders, to bear him harmless 
through the federal coalition, you encounter a perilous topic. I do 
not think so. You have given the genuine history of the course of 
his mind through the trying scenes in which it was engaged, and of 
the seductions by which it was deceived, but not depraved. I think 
I knew General Washington intimately and thoroughly ; and were 
I called on to delineate his character, it should be in terms like 
these. 

" His mind was great and powerful, without being of the very 
first order ; his penetration strong, though not so acute as that of a 
INewton, Bacon, or Locke ; and as far as he saw, no judgment was 
ever sounder. It was slow in operation, being little aided by inven- 
tion or imagination, but sure in conclusion. Hence the common 
remark of his officers, of the advantage he derived from councils of 
war, where, hearing all suggestions, he selected whatever was best ; 
an 1 certainly no General ever planned his battles more judiciously. 
But if deranged during the course of the action, if any member of 
his plan was dislocated by sudden circumstances, he was slow in a 
re-adjustment. The consequence was, that he often failed in the 
field, and rarely against an enemy in station, as at Boston and York. 
He was incapable of fear, meeting personal dangers with the calm 
est imconcern. Perhaps the strongest feature in his character was 
prudence, never acting until every circumstance, every considera- 
tion, was maturely weighed ; refraining if he saw a doubt, but, when 
once decided, going through with his purpose, whatever obstacles 
opposed. His integrity was most pure, his justice the most inflexi 
ble I have ever known, no motives of interest or consanguinity, of 
friendship or hatred, being able to bias his decision. He was, in- 
deed, in every sense of the words, a wise, a good, and a great 
man. His temper was naturally irritable and high-toned ; but re- 
flection and resolution had obtained a firm and habitual ascendancy 
over it. If ever, however, it broke its bonds, he was jnost tremen- 
dous in his wrath. In his expenses he was honorable, but exact ; 
liberal in contributions to whatever promised utility ; but frowning 
and unyielding on all visionary projects, and all unworthy calls on 
his charity. His heart was not warm in its aflfections ; but he ex- 
actly calculated every man's value, and gave him a solid esteem 

44 



olO LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

pioportioned to it. His person, you know, was fine, his stature ex- 
actly what one would wish, his deportment easy, erect, and noble ; 
the best horseman of his age, and the most graceful figure thc\t 
could be seen on horseback. Although in the circle of his friends, 
where he might be unreserved with safety, he took a free share in 
conversation, his colloquial talents were not above mediocrity, pos- 
sessing neither copiousness of ideas, nor fluenc}'^ of words. In pub- 
lic, when called on for a sudden opinion, he was unready, short, 
and embarrassed. Yet he wrote readily, rather diff"usely, in an ea- 
sy and correct style. This he had acquired by conversation with 
the world, for his education was merely reading, writing, and com- 
mon arithmetic, to which he added surveying at a later day. His 
time was employed in action chiefly, reading little, and that only in 
agriculture and English history. His correspondence became ne- 
cessarily extensive, and, with journalizing his agricultural proceed- 
ings, occupied most of his leisure hours within doors. On the 
whole, his character was, in its mass, perfect, in nothing bad, in 
few points indifferent ; and it may truly be said, that never did na- 
ture and fortune combine more perfectly to make a man great, and 
to place him in the same constellation with whatever worthies have 
merited from man an everlasting remembrance. For his was the 
singular destiny and merit, of leading the armies of his countiy suc- 
cessfully through an arduous war, for the establishment of its inde- 
pendence ; of conducting its councils through the birth of a govern- 
ment, new in its forms and principles, until it had settled down into 
a quiet and orderly train ; and of scrupulously obeying the laws 
through the whole of his career, civil and military, of which the 
liistory of the world furnishes no other example. 

" How^, then, can it be perilous for you to take such a man on 
your shoulders ? I am satisfied the great body of repubhcans think 
of him as I do. We were, indeed, dissatisfied with him on his rati- 
fication of the British treaty. But this was short-lived. We knew 
his honesty, the wiles with which he was encompassed, and that age 
had already began to relax the firmness of his purposes ; and I am 
convinced he is more deeply seated in the love and gratitude of the 
republicans, than in the Pharisaical homage of the federal monar- 
chists. For he was no monarchist from preference of his judgment. 
The soundness of that gave him correct views of the rights of man, 
and his severe justice devoted him to them. He has often declared 
•to me that he considered our new constitution as an experiment on 
the practicability of republican government, and with what dose, of 
liberty man could be trusted for his own good ; that he was deter- 
mined the experiment should have a fair trial, and Avould lose the 
last drop of his blood in support of it. * * I felt on his death 
with my countrymen, that ' verily a great man hath fallen this day 
in Israel.' 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 511 

/ 

Progressive improvement, popular rights. — " Some 
men look at constitutions with sanctimonious reverence, and deem 
thein, like the ark of the covenant, too sacred to be touched. They 
ascribe to the men of the preceding age a wisdom more than hu- 
man, and suppose what they did to be beyond amendment. I knew 
that age v/eli: I belonged to it, and labored with it. It deserved 
well of its country. It was very hke the present, but without the 
experience of the present ; and forty years of experience in govern- 
ment is worth a century of book-reading : and this they would say 
themselves, were they to rise from the dead. I am certainly not an 
advocate for frequent and untried changes in laws and constitutions. 
I think moderate imperfections had better be borne with ; because, 
when once known, we accommodate ourselves to them, and find 
practical means of correcting their ill effects. But I know, also, 
that laws and institutions must go hand in hand with the progress 
of the human mind. As that becomes more developed, more en- 
lightened, as new discoveries are made, new truths disclosed, and 
manners and opinions change with the change of circumstances, 
institutions must advance also, and keep pace with the times. We 
might as well require a man to wear still the coat which fitte.d him 
when a boy, as civilized society to remain ever under the regimen 
of their barbarous ancestors. ^ It is this preposterous idea which has 
lately deluged Europe in blood. Their monarchs, instead of wise- 
ly yielding to the giadual changes of circumstances, of favoring pro- 
gressive accommodation to progressive improvement, have clung to 
old abuses, entrenched themselves behind steady habits, and obliged 
their subjects to seek through blood and violence, rash and ruinous 
innovations, which, had they been referred to the peaceful deliber- 
ations and collected wisdom of the nation, would have been put into 
acceptable and salutary forms. Let us follow no such examples, 
nor weakly believe that one generation is not as capable as anoth- 
er of taking care of itself, and of ordering its own affairs. Let us, 
as our sister States have done, avail ourselves of our reason and ex- 
perience, to correct the crude essays of our first and unexperienced, 
although wise, virtuous, and well-meaning councils. And, lastly, 
let us provide in our constitution for its revision at stated periods. 
What these periods should be, nature herself indicates. By the Eu- 
ropean tables of mortality, of the adults living at any one moment 
of time, a majority will be dead in about nineteen years. At the 
end of that period, then, a new majority is come into place ; or, in 
other words, a new generation. Each generation is as independent 
of the one preceding, as that was of all which had gone before. It 
has, then, like them, a right to choose for itself the form of govern- 
ment it believes most promotive of its own happiness ; consequent- 
ly, to accommodate to the circumstances in which it finds itself, that 
received from its predecessors : and it is for the peace and good of 
mankind, that a solemn opportunity of doing this every nineteen 



512 LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

or twenty years, should be provided by the constitution ; so that it 
may be handed on, with periodical repair^«. from generation to gen- 
eration, to the end of time, if any thing human can so long endure. 
It is now forty years since the constitution of Virginia was formed. 
The same tables inform us, that, within that period, two thirds of 
the adults then living are now dead. Have then the remaining 
third, even if they had the wish, the right to hold in obedience to 
their will, and to laws heretofore made by them, the other two 
thirds, who, with themselves, compose the present mass of adults ? 
If they have not, who has? The dead 'I But the dead have no 
rights. They are nothing ; and nothing cannot own something. 
Where there is no substance, there can be no accident. This cor- 
poreal globe, and every thing upon it, belong to its present corpore- 
al inhabitants, during their generation. They alone have a right 
to direct what is the concern of themselves alone, and to declare the 
law of that diiection : and this declaration can only be made by 
their majority. That majority, then, has a right to depute repre- 
sentatives to a convention, and to make the constitution what they 
think will be best for themselves. * * If this avenue be shut to 
the call of sufferance, it will make itself heard through that of force, 
and we shall go on, as other nations are doing, in the endless circle 
of oppression, rebellion, reformation; and oppression, rebellion, re- 
formation, again ; and so on, for ever." 

Missouri question. — " I had for a long time ceased to read 
newspapers, or pay any attention to public affairs, confident they 
were in good hands, and content to be a passenger in our bark to 
the shore from which I am not distant. But this momentous ques- 
tion, hke a fire-bell in the night, awakened and filled me with ter- 
ror. I considered it at once as the kn^ll of the Union. It is hush- 
ed, indeed, for the moment. But this is a reprieve only, not a final 
sentence. A geographical line, coinciding with a marked principle, 
moral and pohtical, once conceived and held up to the angry pas- 
sions of men, will never be obliterated ; and every new irration will 
mark it deeper and deeper. I can say, with conscious trutli, that 
there is not a man on earth who would sacrifice more than 1 would 
to relieve us from this heavy reproach, in any jnacticahle way. 
The cession of that kind of property (for so it is misnamed) is a bag- 
atelle which would not cost me a second thought, if, in that way, a 
general emancipation and expatriation could be effected : and, 
gradually, and with due sacrifices, I think it might be. But as it is, 
we have the wolf by the ears, and we can neither hold him, nor 
safely let him go. Justice is in one scale, and self-preservation in 
the other. Of one thing I am certain, that as the passage of slaves 
from one State to another, would not make a slave of a single human 
being who would not be so without it, so their diffusion over a great - 
er surface would make them individually happier, and proportion- 
ally facilitate the accomplishment of their emancipation, by divid- 



L^ h h-^^-^ /ii, -5.*^ A^v q ^^ A^ 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON-. 513 

itig the burthen on a greater number of coadjutors. An abstinence, 
too, froai this act of power, would reniov^e the jealousy excited by 
the undertaking of Congress to regulate the condition of the differ- 
ent descriptions of men composing a State. This certainly is the 
exclusive right of every State, which nothing in the constitution 
has taken from them, and given to the General government. 
Could Congress, for example, say, that the non-freemen of Connec- 
ticut shall be freemen, or that they shall not emigrate into any oth- 
er State? 

" I regret that I am now to die in the belief, that the useless sac- 
rifice of themselves by the generation of 1776, to acquire self-gov- 
ernment and happiness to their country, is to be thrown away by the 
unwise and unworthy passions of their sons, and that my only con- 
solation is to be, that I live not to weep over it. If they would but 
dispassionately weigh the blessings they will throw away, against 
an abstract principle more likely to be effected by union than by 
scission, they wouk^ pause before they would perpetrate this act of 
suicide on themselves, and of treason against the hopes of the world. 
To yourself, as the faithful advocate of the Union, I tender the of- 
fering of my high esteem and respect." 

On the existence of a Supreme Being. — " I think that ev- 
ery Christian sect gives a great handle to atheism by their general 
dogma, that, without a revelation, there would not be sufficient proof 
of the being of a God. Now one sixth of mankind only are sup- 
posed to be Christians : the other five sixths then, who do not be- 
lieve in the Jewish and Christian revelation, are without a knowl- 
edge of the existence of a God ! This gives completely a gain de 
cause to the disciples of Ocellus, Timaeus, Spinosa, Diderot, and 
D'Holbach. The argument which they rest on as triumphant and 
unanswerable is, that in every hypothesis of cosmogony, you must 
admit an eternal pre-existence of something ; and according to the 
rule of sound philosophy, you are never to employ two principles to 
solve a difficulty when one will suffice. They say then, that it is 
more "simple to believe at once in the eternal preexistence of the 
world, as it is now going on, and may for ever go on by the princi- 
ple of reproduction which we see and witness, than to believe in the 
eternal pre-existence of an ulterior cause, or creator of the world, a 
being whom we see not and know not, of whose form, substance, 
and mode, or place of existence, or of action, no sense informs us, 
no power of the mind enables us to delineate or comprehend. Or; 
the contrary, I hold (without appeal to revelation,) that when we 
take a view of the universe, in its parts, general or particular, it is 
impossible for the human mind not to perceive and feel a conviction 
of design, consummate skill, and indefinite power in every atom of 
its composition. The movements of the heavenly bodies, so exact- 
ly held in their course by the balance of centrifugal and centripetal 

44* 



514 LIFE, WRITiNGS, AND OPtNIONS 

foiceg ; the structine of our eailh itself, with its distribution of lands^ 
waters, and atmospheie ; animal and vegetable bodies, examined in 
all their minutest particles ; insects, mere atoms of life, yet as per- 
fectly organized as man or mammoth ; the mineral substances, 
their generation and uses ; it is impossible, I say, for the human 
mind not to believe, that there is in all this, design, cause, and effect, 
up to an ultimate cause, a fabricator of all things from matter and 
motion, their preserver and regulator while permitted to exist in 
their present forms, and their regenerator into new and other forms.. 
We see, too, evident proofs of the necessity of a superintending pow- 
er, to maintain the universe in its course and order. Starfe, well 
known, have disappeared, new ones have come into view ; comets, 
in their incalculable courses, nmy run foul of suns and planets, and 
require renovation under other laws ; certain races of animals are 
become extinct; and were there no restoring power, all existences 
might extinguish successively, one by one, until all should be redu- 
ced to a shapeless chaos. So irresistible are these evidences of an 
intelligent and powerful agent, that, of the infinite numbers of men 
who have existed through all time, they have believed, in the pro- 
portion of a million at least to a unit, in the hypothesis of an eternal 
pre-existence of a creator, rather than in that of a self-existent uni- 
verse. Surely this unanimous sentiment renders this more proba- 
ble, than that of the few in the other hypothesis. Some early- 
Christians, indeed, have believed in the co-eternal pre-existence of 
both the creator and the world, without changing their relation of 
cause and effect."' 

Religious. — " The result of ji^our fifty or sixty years of reli- 
gious reading in the four words, ' Be just and good,' is tliat in which 
all our inquiries must end ; as the riddles of all the priesthoods 
end in four more, ' Ubi panis, ihi deus.'' What all agree in, is 
probably right, what no two agiee in, most probably wrong. One 
of our fan-coloring biographers, who paints small men as verygreat^ 
inquired of me lately, with teal affection too, whether he might con- 
sider as aulhentic, the change in my religion much spoken of in 
.some circles. Now this supposed that they knew what had been 
my religion before, taking for it the word of their priests, whom I 
certainly never made the c^nlidanti! of my creed. My answer was, 
' Say nothing of my religion. It is known to my God and myself 
alone. Its evidence before the world is to be sought in my life ; if 
that has been koiiest and duiijul to society., the religion which 
has regulated it cannot be a bad one.' 

" Your recommandations are alv-'ays welcome, for, indeed, the 
subjects of them always merit that welcome, and some of them in 
an extraordinary degree. They make us acquainted with what 
there is excellent in our ancient sister State of Massachusitts, once 
venerated and beloved, and still hanging on our hopes, for what need 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 515 

we despair of after the resurreclion of Coanecticut to light and lib- 
erality. I ha 1 believed that the last retreat of inonkish darkness, 
bigotry, and abhorrence of those advances of the mind which had 
carried the other States a century ahead of them. They seemed 
still to bs exactly where their fori^fathers were when they schisma- 
lized from the covenant of works and to consider as dangerous her- 
esies all innovations good or bad. [join you, therefore, in sincere 
congratulations that this den of the priesthood is at length broken 
up, and that a Protestant Popedom is no longer to disgrace the 
American history and character. If by religion, we are to under- 
stand sectarian dogmas, in which no two of them agree, then 
your exclamation on that hypothesis is just, ' that this w^uld be 
the best of all possible worlds, if there were no religion in it.' But 
if the moral precepts, innate in man, and made a part of his physi- 
cal constitution, as necessary for a social being, if the subhme doc- 
trines of philanthropism and deism taught us by Jesus of Nazareth, 
in which all agree, constitute true religion, then, without it, this 
would be, as you again say, ' something not fit to be named, even 
indeed, a hell.' 

" I believe that he who observes the moral precepts, in which all 
religions concur, will never be questioned at the gates of heaven, as 
to the dogmas in which all diflisr ; that, on entering there, the Aris- 
tides and Catos, the Penns and Tillotsons, Presbyterians and Bap- 
tists, will find themselves united in all the principles which are in 
concert with the Supreme mind. Of all the systems of morahty, an- 
cient and modern, which have come under my observation, none 
appears to me as pure as that of Jesus." 

On the loss of friends. — When you and I look back on the 
country ovei which we have passed, what a field of slaughter does 
it exhibit. Where are all the friends who entered it with us, under 
all the inspiring energies of health and hope? As if pursued by the 
havoc of war, they are strewed by the way, some earher, some later, 
and scarce a few stragglers remain to count the numbers fallen, and 
to mark yet, by their own fall, the last footsteps of their party. Is it 
, a desirable thing to bear up through the heat of the action to witness 
the death of all our companions, and merely be the last victim? I 
doubt it. We have, however, the traveller's consolation. Every 
step shortens the distance we have to go ; the end of our journey is 
in sight, the bed wherein we are to rest, and to rise in the midst of 
the friends we have lost. ' We sorrow not, then, as others who have 
no hope' ; but look forward to the day which 'joins us to the great 
majority.' But whatever is to be our destiny, wisdoin, as well as du- 
ty, dictates that we should acquiesce in the will of Him whose it is 
to give and take away, and be contented in the enjoyment of those 
who are still permitted to be with us. Of those connected by blood, 
the number dees not de|;end on us. But friends we have, if we have 



510 LIFE, WRITINGS, AN'D OPINIONS 

merited them. Those of our earhest years stand nearest in our af- 
ipctions. But in this too, you and I have been unluck}'. Of our 
college friends (and they are the dearest) how few have stood with 
us in the great pohtical questions which have agitated our country ; 
and these were of a nature to justify agitation. I did not believe the 
Lilliputian fetters of that day strong enough to have bound so many."- 

Advice on the studies of young men. — ''Moral Pliiloso- 
phy- I think it lost time to attend lectures on this branch. He 
who made us would have been a pitiful bungler, if he had made 
the rules of our moral conduct a matter of science. For one man 
of science, there are thousands who are not. What would have 
become of them ? Man was destined for society. His morality, 
therefore, was to be formed to this object.' He was endowed with 
a sense of right and wrong, merely relative to this. This sense 
is as much a part of his nature, as the sense of hearing, seeing, feel- 
ing ; it is the true foundation of morality, and not the to kalou, truth, 
&c., as fanciful writers have imagined. The moral sense, or con- 
science, is as much a part of man, as his leg or arm. It is given 
to all human beings, in a stronger or weaker degree, as force of 
members is given them in a greater or less degree. It may be 
strengthened by exercise, as may any particular limb of the body. 
This sense is submitted, indeed, in some degree, to the guidance of 
reason ; but it is a small stock which is required for this ; even a 
less one than what we call common sense. State a moral case to 
a ploughman and a professor. The former will decide it as well, 
and often better than the latter, because he has not been led astra\ 
by ,^rtificial rules. In this branch, therefore, read good books, be- 
cause they will encourage, as well as direct your feelings. The 
writings of Sterne, particularly, form the best course of morality 
that ever was written. Besides these, read the books mentioned in 
the enclosed paper : and, above all things, lose no occasion of ex- 
ercising your dispositions to be grateful, to be generous, to be char- 
itable, to be humane, to be true, just, firm, orderly, courageous, ifec. 
Consider every act of this kind, as an exercise which will strength- 
en your moral faculties, and increase your v/orth. 

"Religion. Your reason is now mature enough to examine 

this object. In the first place, divest yourself of all bias in favor of 

novelty and singularity of opinion. Indulge them in any other 

subject rather than that of religion. It is too important, and the 

consequences of error may be too serious. On the other hand, 

shake off all the fears and servile prejudices, under which weak 

minds are servilely crouched. Fix reason firmly in her seat, and 

call to her tribunal every fact, every opinion. Question with bold- 

1 ness even the existence of a God ; because, if there be one, he must 

v] more approve the lioitiage of reason, than that of blindfolded fear. 

\ * * Do not be frightened from this inquiry by any fear of its 

■ V 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 5lT 

consequences. If it ends in a belief that there is no God, you will 
find incitements to virtue in the comfort and pleasantness you feel 
in its exercise, and the love of others which it will procure you. If 
you find reason to believe there is a God, a consciousness that you 
are acting under his eye, and that he approves you, will be a vast 
ndditional incitement : if that there be a future state, the hope of a 
happy existence in that, increases the appetite to deserve it : if that 
Jesus was also a God, you will be comforted by a belief of his aid 
and love. In fine, I repeat, you must lay aside all prejudice on 
both sides, and neither believe nor reject any thing, because any 
other person, or description of persons, have rejected or believed it. 
Your own reason is the oracle given you by Heaven, and you are 
answerable not for the rightness, but uprightness of the decision. 
I forgot to observe, when speaking of the New Testament, that 
you should read all the histories of Christ, as well of those whom 
a council of ecclesiastics have decided for us to be Pseudo-evangel- 
ists, as those they named Evangelists. Because these Pseudo- 
evangelists pretended to inspiration as much as the others, and you 
are to judge their pretensions by your own leason, and not by the 
reason of those ecclesiastics. Most of these are lost. There are 
some, however, still extant, collected by Fabricus, which I Avill en- 
deavor to get and send you. 

'• Travelling. This makes men wiser, but less happy. When 
men of sober age travel, they gather knowledge, which they may 
apply usefully for their country ; but they are subject ever after to 
recollections mixed with regret ; their affections are weakened by 
being extended over more objects ;. and they learn new habits, which 
cannot be gratified when they return home. Young men \^o 
travel are exposed to all these inconveniences in a higher degree, to 
others still more serious, and do not acquire that wisdom for wdiich a 
previous foundation is requisite, by repeated and just observations 
at home. The glare of pomp and pleasure is analogous to the mo- 
tion of the blood ; it absorbs all their affection and attention ; they 
are torn from it as from the only good in this world, and return to 
their home as to a place of exile and condemnation. Their 
eyes are forever turned back to the object they have lost, and its re- 
collection poisons the residue of their lives, l^heir first and most 
delicate passions are hackneyed on unw^orthy objects here, and they 
carry home the dregs, insufficient to make themselves or any body 
else happy. Add to this, that a liabit of idleness, an inabihty to ap- 
ply themselves to business is acqiuredJ^iTcTrenoers them useless to 
themselves and their country. ' These observations are founded in 
experience. There is no place where your pursuit of knowledge 
will be so little obstructed by foreign objects, as in your own country, 
nor any, wherein the virtues of the heart will be less exposed to be 
weakened. Be good, be learned, and be industrious, and you will 
not want tha aid ol travelling, to render you precious to your coun- 



518 LIFE, WRITINGS; AND OPINIONS 

try, dear to your iViends, liappy within youiself. I repeat my ad- 
vice, to take a great deal of exercise and on foot. Health is the 
first requisite after morality."* 

Rules for the regulation of moral conduct. — "This 
letter will, to you, be as one from the dead. The writer will be in 
the grave before you can vreigh its councils. Your affectionate 
and excellent father has Vequestcd tha.t I would address to you 
something which might possibly have a favorable influence on the 
course of life you have to run, and I too, as a namesake, feel an 
interest in that course. Few words will be necessary, with good 
dispositions on your part. Adore God. Reverence and cherish 
your parents. Love your neighbor as yourself, and your country 
more than yourself. . Be just. Be true. Murmer not at the ways 
of Providence. So shall the life, into which you have entered, be 
the portal to one of eternal and ineffable bliss. And if to the dead 
it is permitted to take care for the things of this Avorld, every action 
of your life will be under my regard. Farewell."! 
" The Portrait of a Good Man, by the most sublime of Poets, 
for your iimtation. 

Lor.x>, who's the happy man that may to thy blest courts repair. 
Not strangor like to visit them, but to inhabit there '' 
'Tis he, whose every thought and deed by rules of virtue moves ; 
Whose generous tongue disdains to speak the thing his heart disproves. 
Who never did a slander forge, his neighhor's fame to wound ; 
Nor hearken to a false report, by malice whispered round. 
Who vice, in all its pomp and power, can treat with just neglect; 
And piety, though clothed in rags, rcl'giously respect. 
Who to his plighted vows and trust lias ever fimly stood ; 
And though he promise to his loss, he makes his promise good. 
• Whose soul in usury disdains his treasure to employ ; 

Whom no rewards can ever bribe the guiltless to destroy. 

The man, who, by his steady course, has happiness insured, 

Wlien earth's foundations shake, shall stand, by Providence secured." 

" .4 Decalogue of Canons for observation in practical life. 

1. Never put off till to-morrow what you can do to-day. 

2. Never trouble another for w^hat you can do yourself. 

3. Never spend your money before you can have it. 

4. Never buy what you do not want, because it is cheap : it will 
be dear to you. 

5. Pride costs us more than hunger, thirst and cold. 

6. We never repent of having eaten too little. 

7. Nothing is troublesome that we do willingly. 

8. How much pain have cost us the evils which have never hap- 
pened. 

9. Take things always by their smooth handle. 

10. When angry, count ten 'before you speak; if very angry, 
an hundred." 



* Addressed to Peter Carr. t To T. Jefferson Smith. 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 510 

Habits of living. — " Yoiu- letter came to hand on the 1st in- 
stant ; and the request of tlie history of ray physical habits would 
have puzzled me not a little, had it not been for the model with 
which you accompanied it, of Doctor Rush's answer to a simila.r 
inquiry. I live so much like other people, that I might refer to or- 
dinary life as the history of my own. Like my friend the Doctor, 
I have lived temperately, eating Uttle animal food, and that not as 
an aliment, so much as a condiment for the vegetables, which con- 
stitute my principal diet. I double, however, the Doctor's glass and 
a half of wine, and even treble it with a friend ; but halve its ef- 
fect by drinking the weak wines only. The ardent wines I can- 
not drink, nor do I use ardent spirits irt any form. Malt liquors 
and cider are my table drinks, and my breakfast, like that also of 
my friend, is of tea and coffee. I have been blest with organs of 
digestion, which accept and concoct, without ever nurrmuring, 
whatever the palate chooses to consign to them, and I have not yet 
lost a tooth by age. I v.^as a hard student until I entered on the 
business of life, the duties of which leave no idle time to those dis- 
posed to fulfil them ; and now, retired, and at the age of seventy- 
six, I am again a hard student. Indeed my fondess for reading 
and study revolts me from the drudgery of letter-writing. And a 
stiff wrist, the consequence of an early dislocation, makes writing 
Ijoth slow and painful. I am not so tegular in my sleep as the 
Doctor says he was, devoting to it from five to eight hours, accord- 
ing as my company or the book I, am reading interests me ; and I 
never go to bed without an hour, or a half hour's previous reading 
of something moral, whereon to ruminate in the intervals of sleep. 
But whether I retire to bed early or late, I rise Avith the sun. I 
use spectacles at night, but not necessarily in the day, unless in 
reading small print. My hearing is distinct in particular conver- 
sation, but confused when several voices cross each other, which 
unfits me for the society of the table. I have been more fortunate 
than my friend in the article of health. So free from catarrhs 
that I have not had one (in the breast, I mean) on an average of 
eight or ten years through life. I ascribe this exemption partly to 
the habit of bathing my feet in cold water every morning for sixty 
years past. A fever of more than twenty-four hours I have not 
had above two or three times in my life. A periodical headache 
has afflicted me occasionally, once, perhaps, in six or eight years, 
for two or three weeks at a time, which seems now to have left 
me ; and, except on a late occasion of indisposition, I enjoy good 
health ; too feeble, indeed, to walk much, but riding without fa- 
tigue six or eight miles a day, and sometimes thirty or forty. I 
may end these egotisms, therefore, as I began, by saying that my 
hfe has been so much -ko that of other people, that I might say 
with Horace, to everv one. ^Nomine mutato, 7iarratur fahula de 
ie: 



520 LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

The limits to vvhicli we are confined, arc a warning against an 
extension of the interesting catalogue, or it might be pursued indefi- 
nitely, and with unvarying gratification. The cabinet of the illus- 
trious recluse, besides exhibiting a faithful portrait of himself, con- 
tains the sublimated wisdom of a long life of wonderful experience 
and opportunities, accumulated by a mind eminently original and 
contemplative ; and opens an inexhaustible store of materials for 
the Historian, the Philosoj)her, the Moralist, Patriot, Philanthropist, 
and Statesman. His course of life, while in retirement, was filled 
with untiring activity, and unrestrainedly indulged in those occupa- 
tions, which were the master passions of every portion of it, read- 
ing, science, correspondence, the cultivation of his farm, the endear 
ments of family, and delights of social intercourse. He carried in- 
to his retirement the same neatness and severity of system, which 
had enabled him to surmount with ease the greatest complication of 
duties in public hfe. He rose with the sun. From that time to 
breakfast, and often until noon, he was in his cabinet, chiefly em- 
ployed in epistolary correspondence. From breakfast, or noon at 
latest, to dinner, he was engaged in his work-shops, his garden, or 
on horseback, among his farms. From dinner to dark, he gave to 
society and recreation with his neighbors and friends ; and from 
candle-light to bed-time, he devoted himself to reading and study. 

/Gradually, as he grew older, he became seized with a canine appe- 
tite for reading, as he termed it, and he indulged it freely, as prom- 
ising a relief against the tedium senectutis, a ' lamp to lighten his 
path through tlie dreary wilderness of time before him, whose 
bourne he saw not.' His reading was of the most substantial kind, 
chiefly historical and classical; his studies, philosophical and math- 
ematical. Thucydides, Tacitus, Horace, Newton, and Euclid, were 
his constant companions. When young, mathematics was the pas- 
sion of his life. The same passion returned upon him, in his old 

. age, but probably with unequal powers. ' Processes, he complain- 
ed, which he could then read off with the facility of common dis- 
course, now cost him labor and time, and slow investigation.' Yet 
no one but himself was sensible of any decay in his intellectual 
energies. He possessed an uncommon health, with a constitutional 
buoyancy unbroken, and improved by the salubrity of his mount- 
ain residence ; and his strength, which was yielding under the 
weight of years, w^as considerably re-inforced by the activity of the 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 521 

the course he pursued. " I talk of ploughs and harrows," he wrote 
to a friend, " of seeding and harvesting, with m)^ neighbors, and of 
politics too, if they choose, with as little reserve as the rest of my 
fellow citizens, and feel, at length, the blessing of being free to say 
and do what I please, without being responsible for it to any mor- 
tal." A part of his occupation, and one in which he took great de- 
hght, was the direction of the studies of young men ; multitudes of 
whom resorted to him, as to an Oracle, to imbibe the inspirations of 
his councils, and listen to the incantations of his genius. They lo- 
cated themselves in the neighboring village of Charlottesville, where 
they v/ere invited to a free access to his hbrary, enjoyed the benefit 
of his counsel, participated of his cordial hospitality, and made an 
interesting part of his daily society. " In advising the course of 
their reading" said he, " I endeavor to keep their attention fixed on 
the main objects of all science, the freedom and happiness of man. 
So that coming to bear a share in the councils and government of 
their country, they will keen, ever in view the sole objects of all le- 
gitimate government."' * • ' / 

The agricultural operations of Mr. Jefferson were conducted upon 
an extensive scale, and consequently engaged a great share of his 
attention, by no means the least pleasantly. The domains at Mon- 
ticello, including the adjoining estateSj'contained about eleven thou- 
sand acres, of which about fifteen hundred were cleared. In addi- 
tion to this, he owned a large estate in Bedford county, by right of 
his wife, from which he raised annually about 40,000 weight of to- 
bacco, and grain sufficient to maintain the plantation. He visited 
this estate, about seventy miles distant, once every 5'ear, which kepi 
him from home six or seven weeks at a time. He had about two 
hundred negroes on his farms, who required a constant superinten- 
dance ; more especially, under the peculiar system of agriculture 
pursued by Mr. Jefferson, of which some notice has. heretofore been 
taken. But his choicest labors, in this department, were bestowed 
on that delightful and beloved spot, where all his labors were to 
end, as they had been begun. He had reclaimed its awful rugged - 
ness, when a very young man, and of its wilderness made a gar- 
den ; and now, in his old age, he returned, with all the enthusiosni 
of his early efforts, to the further development and improvemeiU of 
the natural beauties of a site, whose bold and gigantic features, 
whose far-reaching prospects, whose tranquil and immovable brow 

45 



522 LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

amidst the agitations of the storm below, were eminently in unison 
with the elements of his character. A more particular description 
of this celebrated seat may not be unedifying to the majority of read- 
ers. 

MoNTicELLo is derived from the Italian, and announces the 
owner's attachment, at once, to that beautiful language, and to the 
fine arts, of which Italy is both the cradle, and the favorite abode. 
It signifies 'little mountain,' — modest title for a bold and isolated em- 
inence, wliich rises six hundred feet above the suirounding country, 
and commands one of the most extensive and variegated prospects 
in the world. The base of the mountain, which is washed by the 
Ravanna, exceeds a mile in diameter ; and its sides are encompass- 
ed by four parallel roads, sweeping round it at equal distances, and 
so connected with each other by easy ascents, as to afford, when com- 
pleted, a level carriage-way of almost seven miles. The whole 
mountain, with the exception of the summit, is covered with a dense 
and lofty forest. On the top is an elliptic plain, of about ten acres, 
formed by the hand of art cutting down the apex of the mountain ; 
and, in its richly cultivated aspect, contrasting powerfully with the 
unreclaimed and wild magnificence of the subjacent world. This 
extensive artificial level is laid out in a beautiful lawn, broken only 
by lofty weeping willows, poplars, acacias, catalpas and other trees 
of foreign growth, distributed at such distances, as not to obstruct 
the view from the centre in any direction. On the West, stretching 
away to the North and the South, the. prospect is bounded only by 
the Alleganies, — a hundred miles distant in some parts, — overreach- 
ing all the intervening mountains, commanding a view of the Blue 
Ridge for a hundred and fifty miles, and looking down upon an en- 
chanting landscape, broad as the eye can compass, of intermingling 
villages and deserts, forest and cultivation, mountains, vallies, rocks 
and rivers. On the East is a literal immensity of prospect, bound- 
ed only by the rotundity of the Earth, in which ' nature seems to 
sleep in eternal repose, as if to form one of her finest contrasts with 
the rude and rolling grandeur on the West.' From this grand point, 
bringing under the eye a most magnificent panorama, are overlook- 
ed, hke pigmies, all the neighboring mountains as far as the Chesa- 
peake ; and the Atlantic itself might be seen were it not for the 
greatness of the distance. Hence it was, that the youthful philoso- 
pher, before the Revolution, was wont to scrutinize the motions of 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 



523 



the planets, with the mightier revohitjons of the celestial sphei'e ; and 
to witness that phenomenon so interestingly described in his Notes 
on Virginia, as among the subliniest of Nature's operations, the 
looming of the distant momitains. From this elevated seat he was 
wont to enjoy those scenes to which he reverted with so much fond- 
ness and enthusiasm, while in France : "And our own dear Mon- 
ticello ; where has nature spread so rich a mantle under the eye ? 
— mountains, forests, rocks, rivers. With what majesty do we 
there ride above the storms ! How sublime to look down into the 
Avork-house of Nature, to see her clouds, hail, snow, rain, thunder, 
all fabricated at our feet ! and the glorious sun when rising as if 
out of a distant water, just gilding the tops of the mountains, and 
giving life to all nature." From this proud summit, too, ' the Patri- 
ot,' in the language of a visiter, 'could look down, with uninterrupt- 
ed vision, upon the wide expanse of the world around, for which he 
considered himself born ; and upward, to the open and vaulted 
heavens which he seemed to approach, as if to keep him continual- 
ly in mind of his high responsibility. It is indeed a prospect in 
which you -see and feel, at once, that nothing mean or little could 
live. It is a scene fit to nourish those great and high-souled princi- 
ples which formed the elements of his character, and was a most 
noble and appropriate post for such a sentinel over the rights &.nd 
liberties of man.' 

v' In the centre of the summit of this chosen eminence, rose the 
magnificent Mansion of the secluded Patriarch. It was erected and • 
furnished in the days of his affluence ; and was such an one, in all 
respects, as comported with the character and fortune of the man. 
The main structure is one hundred feet in length, hom east to west. 
and above sixty in depth, from north to south, presenting a front in 
every direction. The basement story is raised five or six feet above 
the ground, from which springs the principal story, above twenty 
feet in height, whereon rests an attic of about eight feet. The 
whole is surmoimted by a lofty dome, of twenty eight feet in diam- 
eter, rising from the centre of the building. The principal front 
faces the east, and is adorned with a noble portico, ballancing a 
corresponding one on the west. The north and south fronts pre- 
sent arcades, or piazzas, under which are cool recesses that open in 
both cases on a floored terrace, projecting a hundred feet in a 
straight line, and tljen another hundred feet at right angles, until 



524 LIFE, WRITINGS, A]^D OPINIOKS 

teriiiinated by pavilions of two stones high. Under the whole 
length of these terraces is a range of one story buildings, in which 
are the offices requisite for dontfestic purposes, and the lodgings of 
the household servants. The external of the structuie is finish- 
ed in the Doric order complete, with balustrades on the top of it; 
the internal, contains specimens of all the diflerent orders, except the 
composite which is not introduced. The hall is in the Ionic, the 
dining room in the Doric, the parlor in the Corinthian, and the 
dome in the Attic. Improvements and additions, both useful and 
ornamental, were continually going on, as they were suggested by 
the taste and ingenuity of the owner. Indeed, the whole building 
had been almost in a constant state of re edification, from its ante- 
revolutionary form, wdiich was highly finished, to the present time ; 
"and so I hope it will remain during my life," said he to a visiter, 
"as architecture is my dehght, and putting up, and pulling downj 
one of my favorite amusements." > ♦ 

On the declivities of the mountain are arranged the dwellings of 
artificers and mechanics of every description, and their work shops ; 
for it was the study of the illustrious proprietor to make himself per- 
fectly independent. He had his carpenter's shop, his blacksmith's 
shop, cabinet shop, &c. &c. with a complete suit of manufactories 
for cottons and woollens, grain mills, sawing mills, and a nail facto- 
ry conducted by boys. His' carriage was made by his own work- 
men, as were also many articles of his fine furniture. The fabrica- 
tion with his own hands of curious implements and models, was one 
of his favorite amusements. 

On entering the Mansion by the east front, the visiter is ushered 
into a spacious and lofty hall, Avhose hangings announce at once 
the character land ruling passions of the man. On the right, on the 
left, and around, his eye is struck with objects of science and taste, 
whose arrangement is so curious and admirable as to produce a dra- 
matic effect. On one side are specimens of sculpture, in the form 
of statues and busts, disposed in such order, as to exhibit at a coup 
d'ceil, the historical progress of the art ; from the first rude attempts 
of the aborigines of our country, to the most finished models of Eu- 
ropean masters, particularly a bust of the great Patriot himself, 
from the hand of Caracci. Among others are noticed the bust of a 
male and female sitting in the Indian position, supposed to be very 
ancient, having been ploughed up in Tennessee; a full length 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 525 

figure of Cleopatra, in a reclining position, after she had applied the 
asp ; the busts of Voltaire and Turgot, in plaister. His own bust 
stands on a truncated column, on the pedestal of which are repre- 
sented the twelve tribes of Israel, and the twelve signs ol the Zodiac. 
On the other side are displayed a vast collection of specimens of In- 
dian art, their paintings, engravings, weapons, ornaments, manu- 
factures, statues, and idols ; and on another, a profusion of natural 
curiosities, prodigies of ancient art, fossil productions of every de- 
scription, mineral and animal, &c. (fcc. Among others are particu- 
larly noticed a perfect model of the great pyramid of Egypt ; the 
upper and lower jaw bones and tusks of the mammoth, advanta- 
geously contrasted with those of an elephant along side of them. 

From the hall the visitor enters a spacious saloon, through im- 
mense folding doors, whose portals seem indicative of the disposition 
of the master. In this apartment, the walls are covered with the 
modern productions of the pencil, of the finest workmanship ; histor- 
ical paintings of the most striking subjects from all countries, and all 
ages ; scriptural paintings, among which are the Ascension, the 
Holy Family, the Scourging of Christ, and the Crucifixion, by 
their respective masters ; the portraits of distinguished characters, 
both of Europe and America ; with engravings, coins, and medal- 
lions in endless profusion, — all so blended with the singular ele- 
gance and variety of the furniture of the room, as to produce an 
enchanting effect. Here, and in the other rooms, are the portraits 
of Bacon, Newton, and Locke, his 'trinity of the three greatest 
meri the world had ever produced ;' of Columbus, Vespucius, Cor- 
tez, Magellan, Raleigh ; of Franklin, Washington, ha, Fayette, 
Adams, Madison, Rittenhouse, Paine, and many other remarkable 
men. Here, too, are the busts of Alexander and Napoleon, plac- 
ed/on pedestals, each side of the door of entrance. 
» The whole of the southern wing is occupied by the Library, Cab- 
inet, and chamber of Mr. Jefferson. The library is divided into 
three apartments, opening into each other, the walls of which are 
covered with books and maps. It contained, at one time, the great- 
est private collection of books ever known in the United States, and 
incomparably the most valuable, from the multitude of rare works, 
and the general superiority of the editions. He had been fifty 
years enriching and perfecting his assortment, omitting no pains, 
opportunities, or expense. While in Paris he devoted every after- 

45* 



526 LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

noon he was disengaged, for a summer or two, in examining the 
principal bookstores, and putting by every thing which related to 
America, with whatever was valuable in the sciences. Besides this 
he had standing orders, during the M^iole time he was in Europe, 
in its principal bookmarts, for all such works as could not be found 
in Palis. After the conflagration of Washington in the last war, 
and the destruction of the library, he sold about ten thousand vol- 
umes to the government, "to replace the devastations of British 
vandalism," as he indignantly characterised the licentious transac- 
tion. Confiding in the honor of Congress, he made a tender of 
them to the government, at their own price. The consequence 
was, that he obtained but about twenty four thousand dollars for 
what was worth more than three times that sum, at the London pri- 
ces. In his cabinet, he is surrounded with several hundred of his 
favorite authors, lying near at hand, with every accommodation and 
luxury which ease or taste could require. This apartment opened 
into a green-house, filled with a collection of the most rare plants ; 
and he was seldom without some geranium or other plant beside 
liim. Connected with his study were extensive apparatuses for 
mathematical, philosophical, and optical purposes. It was suppos- 
ed there was no private gentleman in the world in possession of so 
perfect and complete a scientific, useful, and ornamental collection 
as Mr. Jeflerson. i- 

Such is an imperfect representation of a patriarchal Seat and 
appendages, whose just celebrity has attracted the wayfarer of every 
land, and left him in wonder on retiring from it. But who shall 
describe its great architect and occupant ? No one surely, who 
has not met in person his outstretched hand, and felt the warm and 
eiager welcome of his grasp, and thrilled at the intonations of his me- 
lodious voice, and gazed upon the mellow enthusiasm of his counte- 
nance, waving with the light of a boundless benevolence, and the 
chaste corruscations of a mighty, refined, and well-ballanced in- 
tellect. Let this dehcate duty, therefore, be discharged by adopting 
the record of a distinguished guest, whose genius had been touched 
by the influence of his presence : 

" While the visiter was yet lost in the contemplation of these 
treasures of the arts and sciences, he was startled by the approach 
of a strong and sprightly step, and turning with instinctive rever- 
ence to the door of entrance, he was met by tlie tall, and animated, 



OP THOMAS JEFFERSON. 527 

and stately figure of the patriot himself — his countenance beaming 
with intelligence and benignity, and his outstretched hand, with its 
strong and cordial pressure, confirming the courteous welcome of 
his lips. And then came that charm of manner and conversation 
that passes all description — so cheerful — so unassuming — so free, 
and easy, and frank, and kind, and gay — that even the young, and 
overawed, and embarrassed visitw at once forgot his fears, and felt 
himself by the side of an old and familiar friend. There was no 
effort, no ambition in the conversation of the philosopher. It was 
as simple and unpretending as nature itself And while in this easy 
manner he was pouring out instruction, like light from an inex- 
haustible solar fountain, he seemed continually to be asking, instead 
of giving information. The visiter felt himself hfted by the con- 
tact, into a new and nobler region of thought, and became surprised 
at his own buoyancy and vigor. He could not, indeed, help being 
astounded, now and then, at those transcendant leaps of the mind, 
which he saw made without the slightest exertion, and the ease with 
which this wonderful man played with subjects which he had been 
in the habit of considering among the argumenta crncis of the in- 
tellect. And then there seemed to be no end to his knowledge. 
He was a thorough master of every subject that was touched. 
From the details of the humblest mechanic art, up to the highest 
summit of science, he was perfectly at his ease, and every where at 
home. There seemed to be no longer any terra incognita of the 
human understanding : for, what the visiter had thought so, he 
now found reduced to a familiar garden walk ; and all this carried 
off so lightly, so playfully, so gracefully, so engagingly, that he won 
every heart that approached him, as certainly as he astonished every 
mind." 

Although reposing in the bosom of his native mountains, and 
happy in the indulgence of those pursuits and enjoyments, from 
which nothing but revolutionary duties would ever have separated 
liim, his remote seclusion did not shield him from those annoyan- 
ces, which are inseparable from great and virtuous jenown. He 
was persecuted with a perpetual deluge of letters, of which every 
mail brought a fresh accumulation ; not those from his intimate 
■ friends, with whom he deUghted to interchange sentiments, but 
from strangers and others, " who" as he said " oppressed him, in the 
most friendly dispositions, with their concerns, their pursuits, their 



528 LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

projects, inventions, and speculations, political, moral,* religious, me- 
chanical, mathematical, historical, &c. &c." This drew upon him 
a burden, which formed a great obstacle to the delights of retire- 
ment ; for it was a sacred rule with Mr. Jefferson, never to omit an- 
swering any respectful letter received by him, however obscure the 
individual, or insignificant the object. Happening, on one occasion, 
to turn to his letter-list, his curiosity was excited to ascertain the 
number received in the course of a single year ; and on counting, it 
appeared there were one thousand two hundred and sixty seven, 
' many of them requiring answers of elaborate research, and all to 
be answered with due attention and consideration.' Taking an 
average of this number for a week or a day, and he might well 
compare his drudgery at the writing-table to ' the life of a mill- 
horse, who sees no end to his circle but in death,' or to 'the life of a 
cabbage, which was a paradise in contrast.' For these distressing 
intrusions, however, not a murmur or a querulous expression escap- 
ed from him in public ; and when compelled to allude to them in 
his letters of friendship, as apologies for his apparent remissness in 
this department, he would lament them only, as ' the kind indis- 
cretions which were so heavily oppressing the departing hours of 
life.' 

To his persecutions from this source, was occasionally super- 
added the treachery of correspondents, in the piiljlication of his let- 
ters ; which embroiled him with the partisans of the adversary 
opinion, and subjected him to much mortification and uneasiness, 
when his strongest desire w^as that of dying in the good- will of all 
mankind. Conscious of his ov/n singleness and honesty, he boldly 
and habitually trusted his fellow-man ; and, though often betrayed, 
he would never surrender the happiness of this confidence but with 
the desire of existence. To the possession of this felicitous attri- 
bute, are to be ascribed, in great part, the firmness and enthusiasm 
of that phalanx, which, under every pressure of injustice, in every 
tempest of pohtical dissension, supported him unharmed and tri- 
umphant through the focus of its violence. He, who so fondly 
trusted others, was sure to be trusted himself. " Thus am I situa- 
ted," he wrote to a friend — " I receive letters from all quarters, some 
from known friends, some from those who write like friends, on va- 
rious subjects. What am I to do ? Am I to button myself .up in 
Jesuitical reserve, rudely dechning any answer, or answering in 



OP THOMAS JEFFERSON. 



529 



terms so unmeaning-, as only to piove my distrust? Must I with- 
draw myself from all interchange of sentiment with the world ? 
I cannot do this. It is at war with my habits and temper. I can- 
.not act as if all men are unfaithful, because some are so ; nor be- 
lieve that all will betray me because some do. I had rather be the 
victim of occasional infidelities, than relinquish ray general confi- 
dence in the honesty of man." 

There is nothing more tender and beautiful in the history of the 
retirement of this great man, than his exertions to revive revolution- 
ry affections between Mr. Adams and hhnself, which had been in- 
terrupted by the intermediate contlicts of political opinion. They 
had ceased in expression only, not in their existence or cordiality, 
on the part of Mr. Jelierson; who regarded the discontinuance of 
friendly correspondence between them, as ' one of the most painful 
occurrences in his life' ; with Mr. Adams, they had been afTected, 
though neyer destroyed, partly by the sanguine cast of his consti- 
tution, but principally hy the artful and imposing suggestions of 
the busy inft-iguers, that Mr. Jefferson perhaps participated in the 
electioneering activity and licentiousness of the contest which was 
overthrowing his administration. The injustice of this imputation 
is apparent from the fact, that in his most confidential letters, he 
never alluded to Mr. Adams with personal disrespect, and even 
charged the errors of his administration upon his ministers and ad- 
visers, not upon him. An affecting instance of magnanimity to- 
wards his competitor, has been recorded of him by a political oppo- 
nent, who vv"as an eye-witness of the scene. In Virginia, where 
the opposition to the federal ascendency ran high, the younger spir- 
its of the day, catcliing their tone from the public journals, imputed 
to Mr. Adams, on various occasions, in the presence of Mr. Jeffer- 
son, a concealed design to overturn the Repyblic, and supply its 
place with a Monarchy on the British model. The uniform an- 
swer of Mr. Jefferson to this charge, will never be forgotten by those 
who heard it, of whom there are many still living, besides the par- 
ticular narrator. It was this : " Gentlemen, you do not know that 
man : there is not upon this earth a more perfectly honest man 
than John Adams. Concealment is no part of his character ; of 
that he is utterly incapable : it is not in his nature to meditate any 
thing that he would not publish to the world. The measures of 
the General govermnent are a fair subject for difiei'ence of opinion. 



S30 LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

But do not found your opinions on the notion, that there is the 
smallest spice of dishonesty, moral or political, in the character of 
John Adams : for I know him tvell^ and I repeat it, that a man 
more perfectly honest never issued from the hands of his Creator."* 
^Vhen the nation, at length, passed sentence of condemnation on 
the federal administration, the sulDsequent intrigues that were used to 
discomfit the popular will, by the elevation of Burr ; the unmanly 
attempt to extort capitulary terms from Mr. Jefferson ; and the 
scenes of midnight appointment which ensued, compelling him to 
act by hostile instruments, or incur the ocliimi of removing them, 
produced in his mind a momentary dissatisfaction with Mr. Adams, 
who had been a promoter of some of the proceedings, and the os- 
tensible agent of others. A very little time and reflection, however, 
obliterated every sentiment of displeasure from his mind, and restor- 
ed him to that just estimate of Mr. Adams' virtues, which a long 
acquaintance had enabled him to establish. And hid- first wish, 
"on coming into power, was to render easy and dignified the retire- 
ment of his venerable rival, by the gift, either directly or indirectly, 
of the most lucrative office in Massachusetts, should it not be deem- 
ed affrontive. But on suggesting it to some republican members 
ol the delegation from that State, they were 'of opinion he would 
take great offence at the offer ; and, moreover, that the body of re- 
publicans would consider such a step at the outset, as auguring very 
ill of the course he intended to pursue. He therefore, abandoned 
the idea, but did not cease wishing for some opportunity to renew 
their friendly understanding. 

Two or three years after, to wit, in 1804, having had the misfor- 
tune to lose a daughter, between whom and Mrs. Adams there had 
been considerable intimacy, she made it the occasion of writing Mr. 
Jefferson a letter of Qondolence ; in which, with the tenderest senti- 
ments of concern for the event, she avoided a single expression of 
friendship towards himself, and even concluded it with the wishes 
' of her who once took pleasure in subscribing herself your fi lend,' &c. 
Unpromising as was the complexion of this letter, he seized the par- 
tial opening which it offered, to make an effort towards removing 
the clouds from between them. The answer of Mr. Jefferson ex- 
pressed the warmest sensibilites foi" the kindness manifested towards 

"^ Wirt's Eulogy. 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 531 

his departed daughter ; went largely into explanations of the cir- 
cumstances which had seemed to draw a hne of separation between 
them ; and breathed the most fervent wishes for a reconciliation 
with herself and Mr. Adams. In conchlsion, he said : " I have 
thus, my dear madam, opened myself to you without reserve, which 
I have long wished an opportunity of doing ; and without know- 
ing how it will be received, I feel relief from being unbosomed.. 
And I have now only to entreat your forgiveness for this transition 
from a subject of domestic affliction, to one which seems of a differ- 
ent aspect. But though connected with political events, it has been 
viewed by me most strongly in its unfortunate bearings on my 
private friendships. The injury these have sustained has been a 
heavy price for what has never given me equal pleasure. That 
you both may be favored with health, tranquillity and long life, is 
the prayer of one who tenders you the assurance of his highest con- 
sideration and esteem." This letter was followed by a further cor- . 
respondence between the parties, from which soon finding that con- 
ciliation was desperate, he yielded to an intimation in the last letter 
of Mrs. Adams, and ceased from further explanations. 

Being now retired horn all connection with the political world, 
with every ground of jealousy removed, his determination, with his 
hopes, revived to make another effort towards restoring a friendly 
understanding with his worthy revolutionary colleague. To this 
end he opened a correspondence with Dr. Rush, a mutual friend, 
upon the subject ; to wliom he gave a history of all that had hap- 
pened between them ; enclosed to him the late unsuccessful cor- 
respondence ; and expressed his undiminished attachmerit to Mr. 
Adams, with the wish that he would use his endeavors to re- estab- 
lish ancient dispositions between them. A short time after, two of 
Mr. Jefferson's neighbors and friends, while on a tour to the north- 
ward, fell in company with Mr. Adams at Boston, and by his invi- 
tation passed a day with him at Braintree. In the freedom and en- 
thusiasm of the occasion, he spoke out every thing which came 
uppermost, without reserve ; dwelt particularly upon his own ad- 
ministration, and alluded to his masters^ as he called his Heads of 
_ Department, representing them as having acted above his control, 
and often against his opinions. Among other topics, he adverted 
to the unprincipled licentiousness of the press against Mr. Jefferson,' 
adding, ' I always loved Jefferson, and still love him.' 



532 LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

The moment Mr. Jefferson received this intelhgence lie again 
wrote to his friend Rush : 

"This is enough for me. I only needed this knowledge to revive 
towards him all the affections of the most cordial moments of our 
lives. Changing a single word only in Dr. Franklin's character of 
him, I knew him to be always an honest man, often a great one, 
but sometimes incorrect and precipitate in his judgments : and it is 
known to those who have ever heard me speak of Mr.. Adams, that 
I have ever done him justice myself, and defended him when assail- 
ed by others, with the single exception as to his political opinions. 
But with a man possessing s(nTiahy other estimable qualities, why 
should we be dissocialized by mere differences of opinion in politics, 
in religion, in philosophy, or any thing else. His opinions are as 
honestly formed as my own. Our different views of the same sub- 
ject are^the result of a difference in our organization and experience. 
I never withdrew from the society of any man on this account, al ■ 
though many have done it from me ; much less should I do it from 
one with whom I had gone through, with hand and heart, so many 
trying* scenes. I wish, therefore, but for an apposite occasion to ex- 
press to Mr. Adams my unchanged affections for him. There is an 
awkwardness which hangs over the resuming a correspondence so 
long discontinued, unless something could arise which should call 
for a letter. Time and chance may perhaps generate such an oc- 
casion, of which I shall not be wanting in promptitude to avail my- 
self. From this fusion of mutual affections, Mrs. Adams is of course 
separated. It will only be necessary that I never name her. In 
your letters to Mr. Adams, you can, perhaps, suggest my continued 
cordiality towards him, and knowing this, should an occasion of 
writing first present itself to him, he will perhaps avail himself of it, 
as I certainly will, should it first occur to me. No ground for jeal- 
ousy now existing, he will certainly give fair play to the natural 
warmth of his heart. Perhaps I may open the way in some letter 
to my old friend Gerry, who I know is in habits of the greatest inti- 
macy with him. 

" I have thus, my friend, laid open my heart to you, because you 
were so kind as to take an interest in healing again revolutionary 
affections, which have ceased in expression only, but not in their 
existence. God ever bless you, and preserve you in life and health." 

In the course of another month, these two innnortal Patriarchs of 
the Revolution were affectionately brought together, after a ten 
years' suspension of all friendly intercommunication. The corres- 
pondence which passed between them, on the restitution of their an- 
cient cordiality, is one of the most interesting and affecting legacies 
ever bequeathed to the world. It has been well described, as re- 
sembling more than any thing else, one of those conversations in 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 533 

•ibe Elysium of the ancients which the shades of (he departed great 
were supposed to hold, witli regard to the affairs of the world they 
had left. That correspondence was a great sweetener of their 
departing years, blending the apothegms of Science, Morality and 
Rehgion, and the warmest eifusions of reciprocal love and admira- 
tion, with sportive reminiscencies on their past agitations, rivalries, 
mutual follies, mistakes, and misconceptions. And coming, as it 
did, from the Chiefs of the antagonist parties which have divided 
the nation fiom its birth, it reads an awful lesson of reprehension 
on that fellness of party spirit, which has overspread the land with a 
scourge of dissocialization, splitting neighborhoods into repulsive co- 
teries and combinations, and rending asunder families and friends. 
Mr. Jefferson's part, or probably the greatest portion of it, has already 
been given to the world, and would make a volume of itself. A 
few disjointed fragments, of the personal and desultory kind, taken 
promiscuously from his letters of different dates, are all that can be 
expected to enter into this general view of the correspondence. 

" A letter from you calls up recollections very dear to my mind. 
It carries me back to the times when, beset with dif!iculties and dan- 
gers, wo were fellow-laborers in the same cause, struggling for what 
is most valuable to man, his right of self-government. Laboring 
always at the same oar, with some wave ever ahead threatening to 
overwhelm us, and yet passing harmless under our bark, we knew 
not how, we rode through the storm with heart and hand, and 
made a happy port. Still we did not expect to be without rubs and 
difficulties ; and we have had them. First the detention of the 
western posts : then the coalition of Pilnitz, outlawing our com- 
merce with France, and the British enforcement of the outlawry. 
In your day, French depredations : in mine, English, and the Ber- 
lin and Milan decrees : now, the .English orders of council, and 
the piracies they authorise. When these shall be over, it will be the 
impressment of our seamen, or something else : and so we have 
gone on, and so we shall go on, puzzled and prospering beyond ex- 
ample in the history of man. And I do believe we shall continue 
to growl, to multiply and prosper, until we exhibit an association, 
powerful, wise, and happy, beyond what has yet been seen by men." 

"I have thus stated my opinion on a point on Avhich we differ, 
not with a view to controversy, for we are both too old to change 
opinions which are the result of a long life of enquiry and reflection ; 
but on the suggestion of a foimer letter of j^ours, that Ave ought not 
to die before we have explained ourselves to each other. We acted 
in perfect harmony, through a long and perilous contest for our hb- 
erty and independence. A constitution has been acquired, which, 

46 



534 LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

though neither of us thinks perfect, yet both consider as competent to 
render our fellow citizens the happiest and the securest on whom 
the sun has ever shone. If we do not think exactly alike as to its 
imperfections, it matters little to our country, which, after devoting 
to it long lives of disinterested labor, we have delivered over to our 
successors in life, who will be able to take care of it and of them- 
selves." 

"I learned with great regret the serious illness mentioned in your 
letter ; and I hope Mr. Rives will be able to tell me you are entirely 
restored. But our machines have now been running seventy or 
eighty years, and we must expect that, worn as the)?^ are, here a 
pivot, there a wheel, now a pinion, next a spring, will be giving 
way ; and however we may tinker them up for a while, all will at 
length surcease motion. Our watches, with works of brass and 
steel, wear out within that period. Shall you and I last to see the 
course the seven-fold wonders of the times will take? The Attila 
of the age dethroned, the ruthless destroyer of ten millions of the hu- 
man race, whose thirst for blood appealed unquenchable, the great 
oppressor of the rights and hberties of the world, shut up within the 
circuit of a little island of the Mediterranean, and dwindling to the 
condition of an humble and degraded pensioner on the bounty of 
those he has most injured. How miserably, how meanly, has he 
closed his inflated career ! What a sample of the bathos will his 
history present ! He should have perished on the swords of his 
enemies under the walls of Paris." 

" You ask, if I would agree to live my seventy or rather seventy- 
three years over again ? To which I say, yea. I think with you, 
that it is a good world on the whole ; that it has been fiamed on a 
principle of benevolence, and more pleasure than pain dealt out to 
us. There are, indeed, (who might say nay) gloomy and hypo- 
chondriac minds, inhabitants of diseased bodies, disgusted with the 
present, and despairing of the future ; always counting that the 
worst will happen, because it may happen. To these I say, how 
much pain have cost us the evils which have never happened ! My 
tem])erament is sanguine. I steer my bark with Hope in the head, 
leaving Fear astern. My hopes, indeed, sometimes fail ; bat not of- 
tener than the forebodings of the gloomy. There are, I acknowl- 
edge, even in the happiest life, some terrible convulsions, heavy set- 
of!"s against the opposite page of the account. I have often won- 
dered for what good end the sensations of grief could be intended. 
All our other passions, within proper bounds, have an useful object. 
And the perfection of the moral character is, not in a stoical apathy, 
so hypocritically vaunted, and so untruly too, because impossible, 
but in a just equilibrium of all the passions. I wish the patholo- 
gists then would tell us what is the use of grief in the economy, and 
of what good it is the cause, proximate or i-emote." 



v_ 



OF THOMAS .JEFFERSON. 535 

" The public papers, my dear friend, announce the fatal event of ^ 

which your letter of October the 20th, had given me ominous fore- '^ 

boding. Tried myself in the school of affliction, by the loss of ev- ^ i 
ery form of connection which can rive the human heart, I know \ 

well and feci what you have lost, what you have suffered, are suf- 
fering, and have yet to endure. The same trials have taught me \ ^ 
that, for ills so immeasurable, time and silence are the only medi- ^ - 
cine. I will not, therefore, by useless condolences, open afresh the 
sluices of your grief, nor, although mingling sincerely my tears with 
yours, will I say a word more where words are vain, but that it is 
of some comfort to us both, that the term is not very distant, at 
which we are to deposite in the same cerement our sorrows and suf- 
fering bodies, and to ascend in essence to an extatic meeting with 
the friends we have loved and lost, and whom we shall still love, 
and never lose again. *God bless you, and support you under your i * 
heavy afiliction." 

" Putting aside these things, however, for the present, I write this 
letter as due to a friendship coeval with our government, and now X ^ 

attempted to be poisoned,* when too late in life to be replaced by "^J 

new affections. I had for some time observed, in the public papers, O 

^^rk hints and mysterious inuelKlQe^' of a correspondence of yours 
^^■'Svith a friend, to'''''wTttm»--yoir hail 'jjunetl your bosom u'ithout re- 
serve, and which was to be made public by that friend or his repre- ]:^ 
sentative. And now it is said to be actually published. It has not y ^ 
y£t reached us, but extracts have been given, and such as seemed 
. mostiiireTyTo draw a curtain of separation between you and myself. 
/<^\ Were there no other motive than that of indignation against the 
\ \iuthor of this outrage on private confidence, whose shaft seems to 
\ have been aimed at yourself more particularly, this would make it "^ 
\ the duty of every honorable mind to disappoint that aim, by oppos- ^f 
^ ing to its impression a seven-fold shield of apathy and insensibility. ' ) 
With m.e, however, no such armor is needed. The circumstances 
of the times in which we have happened to live, and the partiality 
t*, t^of our friends at a particular period, placed us in a state of apparent 
^opposition, which some might suppose to be personal also: and 
fc >ihere might not be wanting those w"ho wished to make it so, by 
\ vfilling our ears with malignant falsehoods, by dressing up hideous 
\~'phantoms of their own cretuion, presenting them to you under my 
X O liame, to me under yours, and endeavoring to instil into our minds 
J things concerning each other the most destitute of truth. And if 
vlijere had been, at any time, a moment when we were off our guard. 
'^ and in a temper to let the whispers of these people make us forget 
P ,^ what we had known of each other for so many years, and years of 
^ so much trial, yet all men, who have attended to the workings of 
the human mind, who have seen the false colors under which pas- 

* Alluding to the Cunningham Correspondence. 



536 LIF, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

sion sometimes dresses the actions and motives of others, have seenf 
also those passions subsiding with time and reflection, dissipating^ 
like mists before tiie rising sun, and restoring to us the sight of all 
things in their true shape and colors. It would be strange, indeed, 
if, at our years, we were to ^o an age back to hunt up imaginary or 
forgotten facts, to disturb me repose of affections so sweetening to 
the evening of our lives. Be assured, ray dear Sir, that I am inca- 
pable of receiving the slightest impression from the effort now made 
to plant thorns on the pillow of age, worth, and wisdom, and to sow 
tares between friends who have been such for near half a century. 
Beseeching you, then, not to suffer your mind to be disquieted by 
this wicked attempt to poison its peace, and praying you to throw it 
by among the things which have never happened, I add sincere as- 
surances of my unabated and constant attachment, friendship and 
respect." 

But the cultivation of the affections, social and domestic, and the 
delights of philosophical and agricultural occupation, were subjects 
which engaged only a subordinate share of the attention of Mr. Jef- 
ferson in retirement. One other enterprise, of public and vast utili- 
ty, which it was reserved for him to accomplish, constituted the en- 
grossing topic of his mind, from the moment of his return to private 
hfe, to the day and hour of his death. This was the establishment 
of the University of Virginia, — a most genial employment for his 
old age, and, very appropriately, the crowning act of the long and 
wonderful drama of his hfe. Having assisted in achieving for his 
country the inestimable blessings of civil and religious liberty, he 
considered the work but half complete, without securing to posterity 
the means of preserving that condition of moral culture, on which 
the perpetuation of those blessings forever depends. It was one of 
the first axioms to which he attained, that the liberties of a nation 
could never be safe but in the hands of the people themselves, and 
that too of the people with a certain degree of instruction. A sys- 
tem of education, therefore, which should leach every description of 
citizens, from the richest to the poorest, as it was the earliest, so it 
was the latest of public concerns in which he permitted himself to 
take an interest. 

The opinions of Mr. Jefferson on the subject of Education were 
given in detail, while the Revised Code of Virginia was under con- 
sideration ; of which the ' Bill for the General Diffusion of Knowl- 
edge,' drafted by him, v/as a distinguishing feature. The system 
marked out in that Bill, proposed three distinct grades of instruction; 
the sum total of whose objects may be explained by adopting a sin- 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 537 

gle expression of the author, — ' to give the highest degrees of edu- 
cation to the higher degrees of genius, and to all degrees of it, so 
much as may enable them to read and understand what is going on 
in the world, and to keep their part of it going on right.' No part 
of this expansive system had been carried into effect by the Legis- 
lature, except that proposing the elementary grade of instruction ; 
and the intention of this was completely defeated by the option giv- 
en to the County Courts. The University composed the ultimate 
grade of the system, and was the one which pecuharly enlisted the 
zeal of the founder, without, however, subtracting from his devotion 
to the W'hole scheme. In this Institution, like those of the universi- 
ty rank in Europe, it was his intention to have taught every branch 
of Science, useful to mankind, and in its highest degree ; wath such 
a classification of the sciences into particular groups, as to require so 
many Professors only, as might bring them within the views of a 
just but enlightened economy. 

The plan of the University w^as unique, in its superstructure, in 
its intellectual regime, and its general organization. It w^as origin- 
al with Mr. Jefferson, — the offspring of his genius, aided by his ex- 
tensive observations w^hile in Europe. The University of Virginia 
is emphatically his w'ork. His was the first conception, having 
been started by him more than forty years ago ; his, the subsequent 
impulse and direction wdiich finally brought it to maturity ; his, the 
whole scheme of its studies, organization and government ; and his, 
the beautiful and varied architecture of its buildings, in which he 
improved the occasion to present a specimen of each of the orders 
of the art, founded on Grecian and Roman models. He did this 
last with a view to inspire the youth who resorted thither, with 'the 
imposing associations of antiquity,' and to retrieve, as far as he could, 
the character of his country from that pointed sarcasm in his Notes 
on Virginia, that '•' the genius of architecture seems to have shed its 
maledictions over this land." Being located, in gratitude to its 
founder, within four miles of Monticello, he superintended its erec- 
tion daily, and with the purest satisfaction. The plan of the build- 
ings embraced : 1st. Pavilions, arranged on either side of a lawn, 
indefinite in length, to contain each a lecture room, and private 
apartments sufficient to accommodate a Professor and his family. 
2d. A range of Dormitories, connecting the Pavilions, of one sto- 
ry high, sufficient each for the accommodation of two sfudents 

46* 



538 ' LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

only, — as the most advantageous to morals, order and uninterrupt- 
ed study, — with a passage under cover from the weather, giving a 
communication along the whole range. 3d. Hotels, for the diet- 
ing of the students, to contain each a single room for a refectory, 
and accommodations sufficient for the tenants charged with this de- 
partment. 4th. A Rotunda, or large circular building, in which 
were rooms for religious worship, under such regulations as the 
Visitors should prescribe, for public examinations, for a library, for 
schools of music, drawing, and other associated purposes. The 
principal novelties in the scheme of its studies, were a Professorship 
of the principles of government, " to be founded in the rights of 
man," to use the significant language of the originator ; a Profess- 
orship of agriculture ; one of modern languages, among which the 
Anglo-Saxon was included, that the learner might imbibe, with 
their language, their free principles of government ; and the absence 
of a Professorship of Divinity, 'to give fair play to the cultivation of 
reason,' as well as to avoid the constitutional objection against a pub- 
lic establishment of any religious instruction. A Rector and Board 
of Visitors, appointed by the Legislature, composed the government 
of the Institution ; and their first meeting was in August, 1818, at 
RockfishGap,on the Blue Ridge, at which Mr. JefTerson presided, and 
drafted the first annual report to the Legislature. He was also ap- 
pointed Rector of the University, in which office he continued until 
his death, when he was succeeded by Mr. Madison. The estabhsh- 
ment went into operation in the spring of 1825, and is now in a 
flourishing condition. 

The weight and vehemence of opposition which this institution 
encountered, through every stage of its progress, were such as would 
have been insurmountable to any person possessing less persever- 
ance, or less ascendency of personal character than Mr. JefTerson. 
Besides the ordinary circumstances of resistance, common to every 
enterprise of the kind in this country, it was met at the outset, 
by a combination of religious jealousies, probably never equalled. 
Hostile as they were, in every other point, to one another, all the re- 
ligious sects in the State cordially co-operated in the effort to fixis- 
trate an institution, which, from the circumstance of its favoring no 
particular school of divinity, to the exclusion of another, was presum- 
ed to be inimical to all religion, in all its forms. These formidable 
antipathies, with the host of sectional rivalries, the steady counter- 



OP THOMAS JEFFERSON. 539 

action of William and Mary, and the taidy pace of the public pat- 
ronage, produced an array of difficulties of so frightful a character, 
as to cloud the brow of Mr. Jefferson with an occasional anxiety, to 
which he was a stranger under the most afflicting occurrences of 
his political career ; yet he never despaired, resolving to ' die in the 
last ditch rather than give way.' After a most impressive exhorta- 
tion to one of his colleagues of the Visitation, to exert all his facul- 
ties towards allaying the opposition, and arousing the Legislature, 
of which he was a member, to a sense of their distresses, he says : 

" I have brooded, perhaps with fondness, over this establishment, as 
it held up to me the hope of continuing to be useful while I contin- 
ued to live. I had believed that the course and circumstances of 
my life had placed vvithin my power some services favorable to the 
outset of the institution. But this may be egotism ; pardonable, 
perhaps, when I express a consciousness that my colleagues and 
successors will do as well, whatever the Legislature shall enable 
them to do." 

Again he writes to another friend of the University in the Legisla- 
ture: 

"When I retired from the administration of public affairs, I 
thought I saw some evidence that I retired with a good degree 
of public favor, and that my conduct in office had been consid- 
ed, by the one party at least, with approbation, and with acquies- 
ence by the other. But the attempt, in which I have embarked so 
earnestly, to piocure an improvement in the moral condition of my 
native State, although, perhaps, in other States it may have strength- 
ened good dispositions, it has assuredly weakened them in our own. 
The attempt ran foul of so many local interests, of so many person- 
al views, and so much ignorance, and I have been considered as so 
particularly its promoter, that I see evidently a great change of sen- 
timent towards myself. I cannot doubt its having dissatisfied with 
myself a respectable minority, if not a majority of the House of Del- 
egates. I feel it deeply and very discouragingly ; yet I shall not 
give way. I have ever found in my progress through life, that act- 
ing for the public, if we do always what is right, the approbation de- 
nied in the beginning will surely follow us in the end. It is from 
posterity we are to expect remuneration for the sacrifices we are 
making for their service, of time, quiet, and good will." 

At another time he bursts forth, in a letter to one of his colleagues. 
in a strain of despondency mingled with affectionate supplication, 
strongly portraying the difficulties in the way, and the almost over- 
whelming solicitude which he felt for the result : 



540 LIFE, AVRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

" But the gloomiest of all prospects, is in the desertion of the best 
friends of the institution, for desertion I must call it. I know not 
the necessities which may force this on you. General Cocke, you 
say, will explain them to me ; but I cannot conceive them, nor per- 
suade myself they are uncontrollable. I have ever hoped, that 
yourself, General Breckenridge, and Mr. Johnson, would stand at 
your posts in tiie Legislature, until every thing was effected, and 
the institution opened. If it is so difficult to get along with all the 
energy and influence of our present colleagues in the Legislature, 
how can we expect to proceed at all, reducing our moving power ? 
I know well your devotion to your country, and your foresight of 
the awful scenes coming on her, sooner or later. With this fore- 
sight, what service can we ever render her equal to this? What 
object of our lives can we propose so important ? What interest of 
our own which ought not to be postponed to this? Health, time, 
labor, on what in the single life which nature has given us, can 
these be better bestowed than on this hnmortal boon to our country ? 
The exertions and the mortifications are temporary ; the benefit 
eternal. If any member of our college of Visitors could justifiably 
withdraw from this sacred duty, it would be myself, who quadra- 
gents stipendiis jamdndum jieractis, have neither vigor of body 
nor mind left to keep the field : but I will die in the last ditch, and 
sol hope you will, my friend, as well as our firm-breasted brothers 
and colleagues, Mr. Johnson and General Breckenridge. Nature 
will not give you a second life wherein to atone for the omissions of 
this. Pray then, dear and very dear Sir, do not think of deserting 
us, but view the sacrifices which seem to stand in your way, as the 
lesser duties, and such as ought to be postponed to this, the greatest 
of all. Continue with us in these holy labors, until, having seen 
their accomplishment, we may say with old Simeon, ' Nunc dimit- 
tas, Dominey 

The enthusiasm with which the aged patriarch embarked in this 
great undertaking, arose in a principal degree, fi-om its contemplated 
bearing on the future destinies of his country, in a 'political sense. 
This is apparent in all his letters. He intended it as a school for the 
future pohticians and statesmen of the Republic — of that Republic at 
whose birth he officiated, and in whose service he had worn out 
his life. The illustrious man who succeeded him in its Rector- 
ship, has said : " This temple, dedicated to science and liberty, was, 
after Mr. Jefferson's retirement from the political sphere, the object 
nearest his heart, and so continued to the end of his life. His devo- 
tion to it was intense, and his exertions unceasing. It bears the 
stamp of his genius, and will be a noble monument to his fame. 
His general view was to make it a nursery of republican patriots, 



OF THOMAS JEFI'ERSON. 541 

as well as genuine scholars." The same idea is continually enforc 
ed in his impressive appeals to the members of the Legislature, and 
other individuals. 

I To General Breckenridge. — "The reflections that the boys of 
this age are to be the men of the next ; that they should be prepar- 
ed to receive the holy charge wliich we are cherishing to deliver 
over to them ; that in establisliing an institution of wisdom for 
them, we secure it to all our future generations ; that in fulfilling 
this duty, we bring home to our own bosoms the sweet consolation 
of seeing our sons rising under a luminous tuition, to destinies of 
high promise ; these are considerations which will occur to all ; 
but all, I fear, do not see the speck in our horizon which is to burst 
on us as a tornado, sooner or later. The line of division lately 
marked out between different poitions of our confederacy, is such 
as wnll never, I fear, be obliterated, and we are now trusting to 
those who are against us in position and principle, to fashion to 
their own form the minds and affections of our youth. If, as has 
been estimated, we send three hundred thousand dollars a year to 
the northern seminaries, for the instruction of our own sons, then 
we must have there five hundred of our sons, imbibing opinions and 
principles in discord with those of their own country. This canker 
is eating on the vitals of our existence, and if not arrested at once, 
will be beyond remedy. We are now certainly furnishing recruits 
to their school." 

To J. Madison. — "In the selection of our Law Professor,^we 
must be rigorousl}'^ attentive to his political principles. You will 
recollect, that, before the Revolution, Coke Littleton was the uni- 
versal elementary book of law students, and a sounder whig never 
wrote, nor of profounder learning in the orthodox doctrines of the 
British constitution, or in what are called English -liberties. You 
remember also that our lawyers were then all whigs. But when 
his black-letter text, and uncouth but cunning learning got out of 
fashion, and the honied Mansfield ism of Blackstone became the stu- 
dents' hornbook, from that moment, that profession (the nursery of 
our Congress) began to slide iniotoryism, and nearty all the young 
brood of lavt'yers now are of that hue. They suppose themselves, 
indeed, to be whigs, because they no longer know w^hat whigism 
or republicanism means. It is in our seminary that that vestal 
flame is to be kept alive ; it is thence it is to spread anew over our 
own and the sister States. If we are true and vigilant in our trust, 
within a dozen or twenty years a majority of our own Legislature 
will be from our school, and many disciples will have carried its 
doctrines home with them to tlreir several States, and will have 
leavened thus the whole mass." 

The profound and unalloyed satisfaction with which he reflected 
on the success of his labois, is expressed with a noble pride in a per- 



542 LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

sonal communication to the Legislature, a little before his death, 
Avrunj^ from him by the pressing hand of poverty. 

" Tlie effect," says he, "of this institution on the future fame, for- 
tune, and prosperity of our country, can as yet be seen but at a dis- 
tance. But an hundred well educated youths, which it will turn 
out annually, and ere long, will fill all its offices with men of supe- 
rior qualifications, will raise it from its humble state to an eminence 
among its associates which it has never yet known; no, not in its 
brightest days. That institution is now qualified to raise its 5^outh 
to an order of science unequalled in any other State ; and this supe- 
riority will be the greater from the free range of mind encouraged 
there, and the restraint imposed at other seminaries by the shackles 
of a domineering hierarchy, and a bigoted adhesion to ancient hab- 
its. Those now on the theatre of affairs will enjoy the ineffable 
happiness of seeing themselves succeeded by sons of a grade of sci- 
ence beyond their own ken. Our sister States will also be repair- 
ing to the same fountains of instruction, will bring hither their gen- 
ius to be kindled at our fire, and will carry back the fraternal af- 
fections which, nourished by the same Alma Mater, will knit us to 
them by the indissoluble bonds of early personal friendships. The 
good Old Dominion, the blessed mother of us all, will then raise 
her head with pride among the nations, will present to them that 
splendor of genius which she has ever possessed, but has too long 
suffered to rest uncultivated and unknown, and will become a cen- 
tre of ralliance to the States whose youths she has instructed, and, 
as it were, adopted. I claim some share in the merits of this great 
w^ork of regeneration. My whole labors, now for many years, have 
been devoted to it, and I stand pledged to follow it up through the 
remnant of life remaining to me." 

Such were the concluding labors of one who had nimibered more 
than four score years, and devoted sixtj^ of them, uninterruptedly, to 
the service of his country. A more extraordinary life was never 
commemorated in history. The single feature of a sixty years' 
service, as no other instance of it has yet occuricd among mankind, 
so it probably never will again. And should a parallel instance 
occur, even once and again, will it ever be as boldly, as beautifully, 
as wonderfully characterized? Will their course have been marked 
by the same transcendent consistency, through every stage of life, 
and revolution of fortune ? A theme on which we need not, dare 
not venture to dilate. Long after the most of those who were his 
original adherents or opponents had disappeared from the world, he 
continued the cool, grey-haired champion of the same political doc- 
trines which he espoused in the fire of green youth ; nay, upon the 



OF TH03IAS JEFFERSON. 543 

verge of the grave he stood, as it were, the embodied spirit of the Rev- 
ohition, in all its purity and power, nourishing with its wholesome in- 
fluence the acting generation of his country, and distributing its revo- 
lutionary energies among the nations of the earth which still slumber- 
ed in despotism. Will that service have been distinguished, nniform- 
ly, by the same holy disinterestedness) The pen of inspiration 
would alone be appropiiate to a development of this ecstatic head. 
Will it ever be a service so diversified in its features, and of such 
equal pre-eminence in all, as to have left the world in doubt, wheth- 
er it is most indebted to him as a Patriot, a Philosopher, a Scholar, 
a Philanthropist, a Moralist, a Statesman, a Diplomatist, an Au- 
thor, a Writer, or a Social being ? Will the times of their service 
have been as trying as those which embraced the stupendous 
achievments of our Revolution, our transition from colonial vassal- 
age to the triumphant, secure, and blessed enjoyment of self-gov- 
ernment, theretofore deemed an Utopian state ? Will their agency 
have been as prominent in the erection and modification of this hal- 
lowed political structure, and in holding it to its genuine principles, 
against the fatal errors and catastrophes which have overruled the 
issues of every other struggle for its attainment ? Above all, that 
topic on which the lover of human nature will ever hang with rap- 
ture, must we not look in vain among the records of the political 
actors of the world, for an example of that spotless sincerity^ which 
never harbored a sentiment, a wish, or a feeling, in private, differ- 
ent from what it uttered in public, — of that chaste honor, which 
always asserted the just characters of his opponents, in the circle 
of his most confidential companions ? Let the hoards of the private 
letters of the most illustrious men of their day be broken up, and 
display to view, as in the present case, the very sanctuary of their 
inmost thoughts and feelings, and see if they present the same 
beautiful mirror of their actions and professions. The same fidel- 
ity to friends, and magnanimity to opponents, the same repugnance 
to the noisy honors of the w^orld, and devotion to philosophic re- 
tirement, the same absence of all intrigue, selfishness, and personal 
ambition, the same unbounded sacrifices in the cause of liberty and 
philanthropy, the same sleepless, Roman love of countr}", her rights, 
her interests, her honor, her prosperity. 

But why should we attempt coolly to particularize the distinguish- 
ing ornaments of a public character, whose developments in the ag- 



344 LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

gregate, were so extraordinary, and have given so powerful, and 
glorious, and lasting a direction to the current of human thought? 
Adopting a humble imitation of liis masterly deUneation of General 
Wasiiington, may it not be summarily represented as 'in the mass 
perfect, in many points unrivalled, in nothing bad, in few points indif- 
ferent.' And never, since the age of miraculous interposition in the 
aflairs of men, has there existed such an astonishing example of the 
silent, steady, and irresistible triumph of unobtrusive greatness over 
the confederated resistance of the temporal and spiritual principalities 
of the earth; for, with a world in arms against him, he succeeded in 
erecting a reputation whose base is the broad empire of Civil and 
Religious Liberty, and whose towering grandeur will never reach 
its culmination until this glorious empire shall have become as uni- 
versal as the abode of humanity. 

Shall we follow him into the walks of private life, into the tem- 
ple of his hallowed seclusion, and view him under all the relations 
of husband, father, friend, companion, and man ? Here, never did 
the Virtues and the Graces mingle their magic influences more po- 
tently to produce a model of the perfection w^hich nature can cover 
under the human form. His heart was most fervent in its affec- 
tions ; and as confiding as innocence itself, never harboring a suspi- 
cion of the depository of its trust ; and, what is more uncommon, as 
tenacious as it was ardent and confiding, holding on to its object 
without decay under every vicissitude. His friendships were of 
course indissoluble, those contracted earliest continuing forever, and 
existing the strongest. His justice was most severe, sacrificing the 
claims of the closest ties of affection, to avoid the contamination of 
dishonor ; and his virtue, the most unbridled licentiousness of ca- 
lumny has left without a taint. His temper was proverbially even, 
serene, and buoyant, thrusting fear always astern, and cherishing 
habitually the fond incitements of hope. Of domestic life he was at 
once the adorer and the idol, ever anxious to forego worldly honors 
and emoluments for its enjoyment ; and such was the influence 
of his affection upon those around him, heightened by a sense of 
the respect of the world for him, that he was almost worshipped by 
his family. He delighted in the society of children, with whom 
he was accustomed, in his old age, to practice feats of agility which 
few could imitate. Being taken by surprise on one of these occa- 
sions, by the entrance of a stranger, he grasped his hand, smihng 



OF TH03IAS JEFFERSON. 545 

and saying : " I will make no other apology than the good Henry 
the Fourth did, when he was caught by an ambassador playing 
horse, and riding one of his children on his back, by asking, are you 
a father ? — if you are no apology is necessary." His powers of 
conversation were of the highest order ; which, heightened by the 
charms of modesty, and an habitual show of equality in the pres- 
ence of everyone, and carried off with ' a voice of pure and delicate 
affection, Vvhich ran with brilliancy and effect through the whole 
compass of colloquial music, now bright with wit, now melting with 
tenderness,' made him the soul and centre of the social circle. Of 
the warmth of his social dispositions, the range of his private cor- 
respondence affords the most ennobling proofs. Even in the angry 
period of '98, so memorable for its dissocializing spirit, he wrote to 
a distinguished political opponent : " I feel extraordinary gratifica- 
tion in addressing this letter to you, with whom shades of differ- 
ence in political sentiment have not prevented the interchange of 
good opinion, nor cut off the friendly offices of society (and good 
correspondence. This political tolerance is the more valued by me, 
who consider social harmony as the first of human felicities, and 
the happiest moments those which are given to the effusions of 
the heart." 

But the most interesting fragment of this nature, is found in 
a letter of friendship while in France, of which the following are 
extracts : 

" I hope in God, no circumstance may ever make either seek an 
asylum from grief ! With what sincere sympathy I would open 
every cell of my composition, to receive the effusion of their woes ! 
I would pour my tears into their wounds ; and if a drop of balm 
could be found on the top of the Cordilleras, or at the remotest 
sources of the Missouri, I would go thither myself to seek and to 
bring it. Deeply practised in the school of affliction, the human 
heart knows no joy which I have not lost, no sorrow of which I 
have not drank ! Fortune can present no grief of unknown form 
to me ! Who, then, can so softly bind up the wound of another, as 
he who has felt the same wound himself?" 

" And what more sublime delight, than to mingle tears with one 
whom the hand of Heaven hath smitten ! to watch over the bed 
of sickness, and to beguile its tedious and its painful moments ! 
to share our bread with one to whom misfortune has left none ! 
This world abounds indeed with misery : to lighten its burthen, 
we must divide it with one another. But let us now try the virtue 
of your mathematical balance, and as you have put into one 

47 



546 LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

scale the burthens of friendship, let me put its comforts into the 
other. When languishing then under disease, how grateful is the 
solace of our friends ! how are we penetrated with their assiduities 
and attentions ! how much are we supported by their cncourag- 
ments and kind offices ! When Heaven has taken from us some 
object of our love, how sweet is it to have a bosom whereon to re- 
cline our heads, and into which we may pour the torrent of our 
tears ! Grief, with such a comfort is almost a luxury ! In a life 
where we are perpetually exposed to want and accident, yours is a 
wonderful proposition, to insulate ourselves, to retire from all aid, 
and to wrap ourselves in the mantle of self-sufficiency ! For as- 
suredly nobody will care for him, who cares for nobody. But 
friendship is precious, not only in the shade, but in the sunshine 
of life : and thanks to a benevolent arrangement of things, the 
greater part of hfe is sunshine. * * Let the gloomy monk, 
sequestered from the world, seek unsocial pleasures in the bottom 
of his cell ! Let the sublimated philosopher grasp visionary hap- 
piness, while pursuing phantoms dressed in the garb of truth ! 
Their supreme wisdom is supreme folly: and they mistake for 
happiness the mere absence of pain. Had the}'^ ever felt the solid 
pleasure of one generous spasm of the heart, they would exchange 
for it all the frigid speculations of their hves, which you have been 
vaunting in such elevated terms. Believe me, then, my friend, 
that that is a miserable arithmetic, which could estimate friendship 
at nothing, or at less than nothing." 

How pure, and grateful, and animating the sensations with which 
every American must contemplate so rare an assemblage of virtues, 
in one of the most distinguished of their benefactors. But is there 
no circumstance to detract from this just national pride and exulta- 
tion 1 I Alas ! there is one. All the latter years of Mr. Jefferson 
were overshadowed with gloom. He was permitted to languish in 
poverty and distress during the most helpless and hopeless peiiod 
of his existence. If it be asked why he fell a victim to penury and 
want ? the answer is inscribed on every page of his country's his- 
tory. It beams from the surface of every thing that is peculiar 
and admirable in the principles of our government. What institu- 
tion is there in the United States which does not bear ihc impress of 
his genius and his labors ? W hat charitable establishment, promis- 
ing real utility, that has not profitted of his patronage. What son 
or daughter of affliction, that has sohcited aid, who has not shared 
his bounty ? What nation, clime, or kindred that has not partici- 
pated of his generous hospitality ? He sacrificed the bulk of his 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 



547 



inheritance, immense as it was, upon the altar of all the virtues ; 
and the general prostration of the farming business, the calamitous 
fluctuations of the paper medium, which doubled and trebled his 
debts, by reducing in that proportion the value of landed property, 
and the bankruptcy of individuals for whom he had largely under- 
written, carried away the remainder. In this hopeless condition, 
with his estate overloaded with incumbrances, his health daily sink- 
ing under age and disease, and harrowed by the prospect of leav- 
ing a numerous family in wretchedness, he threw himself, as a last 
and painful resource, not upon the gratitude — no, he could not do 
that — but upon the naked justice of his native State, as it had been 
frequently, though discretionally; exercised. He asked not a far- 
thing from the treasury. He simply requested permission of the 
Legislature, by the aid of a Lottery, to sell his own property freely 
to pay his own debts ; and not to sacrifice it, as would have been 
unavoidable, if forced into a market without bidders, to enhance the 
fortunes of speculators merely, leaving those unpaid who had trust- 
ed to his good faith. This was the only form in which he would 
accept assistance from the public. His principles would not permit 
him to receive a donation from the State or General Government, 
and he forbade his friends from asking or receiving it. The fol- 
lowing letter to his grandson, written in February, 1826, during 
the pendency of his application, presents an affecting picture of the 
state of his mind under the pressure of his multiplied adversities. 

" My dear Jefferson — I duly received }'^our affectionate letter of 
the 3d, and perceive there are greater doubts than I had apprehend- 
ed whether the Legislature will indulge me in my request to them. 
It is a part of my mortification to perceive that I had so far over- 
valued myself as to have counted on it, with too much confidence. 
I see, in the failure of this hope, a deadly blast of all my peace of 
mind, during my remaining days. You kindly encourage me to 
keep up my|spiiits — but oppressed with 'disease, debility, age, and 
embarrassed all'airs, this is difficult. For myself, I should not re- 
gard a prostration of fortune. But I am overwhelmed at the 
prospect of the situation in which I may leave my family ; my dear 
and beloved daughter, the cherished companion of my early life, 
and nurse of my age, and her children, rendered as dear to me as 
if my own, from having lived with them from their cradle, left in a 
comfortless situation, hold up to me nothing but future gloom — and 
I should not care were hfe to end with the line I am writing, were 
it not that I may be yet of some avail to the family. Their affec- 



548 LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

tionate devotion to me makes a willingness to endure life a duty, 
so long" as it can be of any use to them. Yourself particularly, 
dear Jefferson, I consider as the greatest of the Godsends which 
heaven has granted to me ! — Without you, what could I do under 
the difficulties that now environ me ? These have been produced in 
some degree by my own unskilful management, and devoting my 
time to the service of my country ; but much also by the unfortu- 
nate fluctuations in the value of our money, and the long continued 
depression of farming business. But for the last, I am confident 
niy debts might be paid, leaving me Monticello and the Bedford 
estate. But where there are no bidders, property, however great, is 
no resource for the payment of debts — all may go for little or noth- 
ing. Perhaps, however, even in this case, I may have no right to 
complain, as these misfortunes have been held back for my last 
days when few remain to me. I duly acknowledge that I have 
gone through a long life, with fewer circumstances of affliction 
than are the lot of most men.^ — Uninterrupted health, a compe- 
tence for every reasonable want, usefulness to my fellow-citizens, 
a good portion of their esteem, no complaint against the world 
which has sufficiently honored me, and above all, a family which 
has blessed me by their affection, and never by their conduct given 
me a moment's pain. And should this my last request be granted, 
I may yet close with a cloudless sun, a long [and serene day of 
life. Be assured, my dear Jefferson, that I have a just sense of 
the part you have contributed to this, and that I bear to you un- 
measured affection." 

The following extract of a letter to Mr. Madison, written about 
a week afterwards, is not without great interest from its concluding 
sentiments, and from the circumstance of its having been the last 
he ever addressed to his old and well-tried bosom friend. After 
leaving him a warm exhortation on the subject of the University, 
in view of its political importance to the cor<ntiy, and detailing 
the distressing situation of his finances, with the causes that led to 
it, he says : 

"Reflecting on these things, the practice occurred to me, of sell- 
ing, on fair valuation, and by way of lottery, often resorted to before 
the Revoluion to effect large sales, and still in constant usage in 
every State for individual as well as corpcration purposes. If it is 
permitted in my case, ray lands here alone, with the mills, &c., 
will pay every thing, and leave me Monticello and a farm free. If 
refused, I must sell every thing here, perhaps considerably in Bed- 
lord, move thither with my family, where I have not even a log 
hut to put my head into, and vyhether ground for burial, will de- 
pend on the depredations which, under the form of sales, shall have 
iDeen committed on my property. The question then with me was, 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 549 

Utrutn honmiJ But why afflict you with these details? Indeed, 
1 cannot tell, unless pains are lessened by communication with a 
fiiend. The friendship which has subsisted between us, now half 
a century, and the harmony of our political principles and pursuits, 
have been sources of constant happiness to me through that long 
period. And if I remove beyond the reach of attentions to the 
University, or beyond the bourne of hfe itself, as I soon must, it is a 
comfort to leave tliat institution under your care, and an assurance 
that it will not be wanting. It has also been a great solace to me, 
to believe that you are engaged in vindicating to posterity the 
course we have pursued for preserving to (hem, in all their purity, 
the blessings of self-government, which we had assisted, too, in ac- 
quiring for them. If ever the earth has beheld a system of admin- 
istration conducted with a single and steadfast eye to the general 
interest and happiness of those committed to it, one which, protected 
by truth, can never know reproach, it is that to which our lives 
have been devoted. To myself you have been a pillar of support 
through life. Take care of me when dead, and be assured that I 
shall leave with you my last affections." 

But a few days after, to wit, on the 20th of February. 1826, his 
application for a Lottery passed the Legislature of Virginia, by un- 
expectedly great majorities in both Houses. This honorable issue 
imparted the purest consolation to the heart of the venerable Patri- 
arch, and gave a spring to emotions which were almost dead before. 
"The necessity which dictated this expedient," he wrote to a friend, 
"cost me, in its early stage, unspeakable mortification. The turn 
it has taken, so much beyond what I could have expected, has coun- 
tervailed all I suffered, and become a source of felicity which I 
should otherwise never have known." The scheme of the Lottery 
embraced three great prizes, to wit, the Monticello estate, valued at 
71,000 dollars ; the Shadwell mills adjoining it, valued at 30,000 ; 
and the Albemarle estate, at 11,-500. The Bedford tract was not 
thrown in, because, being derived from his wife, Mr. Jefferson had 
only a life estate in it, with power to convey it to their descendants 
in such portions as he chose. Otherwise this estate would have 
gone in with the rest. 

Simultaneously with the proceedings in the Virginia Legislature, 
and as soon as it became known that Mr. Jefferson was in a state 
of pecuniary distress, a spontaneous and noble feeling of gratitude 
burst forth in every section of the Union. That the great, the good, 
the revered character, who had been the chosen champion of the 
people under every opnression, foreign and internal, who had cover- 

47* 



550 LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

ed the wide empire with a solid and sparkling glory, should be per- 
mitted to pine in indigence, and be exiled, in his old age, from the 
haunt of his happier days, was too revolting to the spirit of Amer- 
ica, not, to awaken the liveliest sensibilities for his situation. The 
paltry expedient of a Lottery was considered too cold and calculating 
a remedy for a case which addressed itself to all the nobler sympa- 
thies of the human heart, Public meetings were called in all the 
considerable cities of tlie Union, at which feeling and high-spirited 
resolutions were passed, and subscriptions opened, which were as 
suddenly filled with emulous contributions to the relief of the suffer- 
ing Apostle of human liberty. The Legislature of Louisiana, actu- 
ated by a peculiar sense of indebtedness to the author of their ad- 
mission into the Republic, immediately passed an act appropriating 
ten thousand dollars to be placed at his disposal. The Legislature 
of South Carolina, it is believed, did the same. Various schemes 
were proposed, in different places, in'all which the leading object ap- 
peared to be, how to bestow their bounty so as to give least pain to 
the delicacy of his feeUngs. 

But Mr. Jefferson Hved to derive very little benefit from these vol- 
untary offerings of a grateful people, and none, from the legislative 
provision of his native State. His health had been impaired by a 
too free use of the Hot Spring Bath in 1818. From that time his 
indisposition steadily increased until the spring of 1826, when it at- 
tained a troublesome and alarming violence, giving certain indica- 
tions of a gradual approach of dissolution. Of the issue he early 
seemed perfectly aware. On the 5th of June, he observed to a friend 
that ' he doubted his weathering the present sunf.mer.' On the 
24th of June, his disorder and weakness having reached a distress- 
ing point, he yielded to the entreaties of his family and saw his phy- 
sician — Dr. Dungleson of the University. On this occasion he 
warned a friend, who came to see him on private business, that 
" there was no time to be lost ;" and expressed with regret his only 
apprehension, that " he could not hold out to see the blessed Fourth 
of July ;" that he had called in a physician, and to gratify his fam 
ily, would follov/ his prescriptions, but that it would prove unavail 
ing — " the machine had worn out and would go on no longer.' 
On the same day, he addressed that most remarkable letter to the 
Mayor of Washington, copies of which, elegantly printed and fram 
ed, adorn the mantle-pieces of many of the private dweUings in that 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. ODl 

City, and the walls of its public edifices. This was the last letter 
he ever wrote, and surely none was better fitted to be the last, for it 
is clearly one of the most extraordinary among those of its extraor- 
dinary author. 

" Respected Sir, — ^The kind invitation I receive from you, on the 
part of the citizens of the city of Washington, to be present with 
them at their celebration on the fiftieth anniversary of American In- 
dependence, as one of the surviving signers of an instrument preg- 
nant with our own, and the fate of the world, is most flattering to 
myself, and heightened by the honorable accompaniinent proposed 
for the comfort of such a journey. It adds sensibly to the sufferings 
of sickness, to be deprived by it of a personal participation in the re- 
joicings of tiiat day. But acquiescence is a duty, under circumstan- 
ces not placed among those we are permitted to control. I should 
indeed, with peculiar delight, have met and exchanged there con- 
gratulations personally with the small band, the remnant of that 
host of worthies, who joined with us on that day, in the bold and 
doubtful election we were to make .'or our country, between submis- 
sion or the sword ; and to have enjoyed with them the consolatory 
fact, that our fellow-citizens, after half a century of experience and 
prosperity, continue to approve the choice we made. May it be to 
the world, v^hat I beheve it will be (to some parts sooner, to others 
later, but Anally to all,) the signal of arousing men to burst the 
chains under which monkish ignorance and superstition had persua- 
ded them to bind themselves, and to assume the blessings and secu- 
rity of self-government. That form which we have substituted, re- 
stores the free right to the unbounded exercise of reason and free- 
dom of opinion. All eyes are opened, or opening, to the rights of 
man. The general spread of the light of science has already laid 
open to every view the palpable truth, that the mass of mankind 
has not 1 een born with saddles on their backs, nor a favored few 
booted and spurred, ready to ride them legitimately, by the grace of 
God. These are grounds of hope for others. For ourselves, let 
the annual return of this day for ever refresh our recollections of 
these rights, and an undiminished devotion to them. 

" I wall ask permission here to express the pleasure wnth which I 
should have met my ancient neighbors of the city of Washington 
and its vicinities, with whom I passed so many years of a pleasing 
social intercourse ; an intercourse which so much relieved the anx- 
ieties of the public cares, and left impressions so deeply engraved in 
my aflfections, as never to be forgotten. With my regret that ill 
health forbids me the gratification of an acceptance, be pleased to re- 
ceive for yourself, and those for whom you write, the assurance of 
my highest respect and friendly attachments." 

On the 28th of June, a friend from a distance visited him on pri- 
vate business, and has left an affecting account of his interview. 



552 LIFE, WRITING;?, AND OPINIONS 

" As I approached the house," says he, " the anxiety and distress 
visible in the countenance of the servants, increased the gloom of 
iny own forebodings, and I entered it under no little agitation. Af- 
ter the object of my call was made known to Mrs. Randolph, she 
told me that, although her father had been expecting to see me, he 
was then too unwell to receive any one. It was but too evident, 
that the fears of his daughter overballanced her hopes ; and while 
sympathising in her distress, I could not help sighing to think that, 
although separated from him only by a thin wall, I was never more 
to behold the venerable man, who had entered all the walks of pol- 
itics and philosophy, and in all was foremost — and to whom the 
past, present and all future ages are, and will be so much indebted. 
However, Mrs. Randolph having left me, to attend to her father, soon 
returned, and observed that she had taken it for granted that he 
could not see me ; but upon her casually mentioning my arrival, he 
had desired I should be invited into his chamber. My emotions at 
approaching Jefferson's dying bed, I cannot describe. You re- 
member the alcove in which he slept. There he was extended — 
feeble, prostrate ; but the fine and clear expression of his counten- 
ance not at all obscured. At the first glance he recognized me. 
and his hand and voice at once saluted me. The energy of his 
ffrasp, and the spirit of his conversation, were such as to make me 
hope he would yet rally — and that the superiority of mind over mat- 
ter in his composition, would preserve him yet longer. He regret- 
ted that I should find him so helpless, talked of the freshet then pre- 
vailing in James river, and said he had never known a more de- 
structive one. He soon, however, passed to the University, expa- 
tiated on its future utility, commended the professors, and expressed 
satisfaction at the progress of the students. A sword was suspend- 
ed at the foot of his bed, which he told me was presented to him by 
an Arabian Chief, and that the blade was a true Damascus. At 
this time he became so cheerful as to smile, even to laughing, at a 
remark I made. He alluded to the probability of his death, as a 
man would to the prospect of being caught in a shower, as an event 
not to be desired, but not to be feared. Upon proposing to with- 
draw, I observed that I would call to see him again. He said, 
' well do, but you will dine here to day.' To this I replied, ' I 
proposed deferring that pleasure until he got better.' He v.^aved 
his hand and shook his head with some impatiencej saying, emphat- 



OP THOMAS JEFFERSON. 653 

ically, ' you must dine here, my sickness makes no difference.' I 
consented, left him, and never saw him more." 

During the four or five days remaining to him, his decay was 
gradual, but visible. Of this no one was more conscious than him- 
self ; ^'et he retained, to the last moment of his existence, the same 
serene, decisive, and cheerful temper, which had marked his event- 
ful history. He often recurred with spirit and animation to the Uni- 
versity, and expressed his hope that " the State would not now 
abandon it." He spoke of the changes which he feared would be 
made in it ; of his probable successor as Rector ; of the services he 
had rendered to his native State ; and counselled and advised as to 
his private affairs: Upon being unusually ill for a short time, lie ob- 
served very cheerfully, " Well Doctor, a few hours more and the 
struggle will be over." Ho called in his family, and conversed 
calmly and separately with each of them. To his daughter he pre- 
sented a small morocco case which he requested her to open imme- 
dia,tely after his decease. On opening the case it was found to con- 
tain an elegant and affectionate strain of poetry " on the virtues of 
his dutiful and incomparable daughter." When the 3d of July ar- 
rived, upon enquiring with some solicitude the day of the month, 
he expressed a fervent desire to live till the next day, that "he might 
breathe the air of the fiftieth anniversary, when he would joyfully 
sing, with old Simeon, Nunc Di?nittas, Do7nine." In the few 
short intervals of delirium which occurred, his mind relapsed to the 
age of tiie Revolution, with all the enthusiasm of that period. He 
talked, in broken sentences, of the Committees of Safety, and the 
rest of that great machinery, which he imagined to be still in mo- 
tion. One of his exclamations was, " Warn the Committee to be 
on their guard," and he instantly rose in his bed, with the help of 
his attendants, and went through the act of writing a hurried note. 
But his reason was almost constantly in her seat, when the great 
topics on which he dwelt, vvere the happiness of his oidy and belov- 
ed child, the University of Virginia, and the advent of the approach- 
ing anniversary. 

When the morning of that day came, he appeared to be thor- 
oughly impressed, as if preternatu rally, that he shoukl not live 
through it, and only expressed a desire that he might survive until 
mid- day. He seemed perfectly at ease, being willing to die. When 
tlie Doctor entered his room, he said, " Well Doctor, you see I am 



554 LIFE, WRITINGS, AND OPINIONS 

here yet.*' His disorder being checked, a friend expressed a hope 
of amendment. His reply was, " that the powers of nature were 
too much exhausted to be raUied." On a member of his family ob- 
serving that he was better, and that the Doctor thought so, he hs- 
lened with evident impatience, and said, "Do not imagine for 'a mo- 
ment that / feel the smallest solicitude as to the result." He then 
calmly gave directions for his funeral, expressly forbidding all pomp 
and parade, when, being answered by a hope that it would be long 
ere the occasion would require their observance, he asked, with a 
smile, '• Do you think I fear to die ?" A few moments after, he 
called his family and friends around his bed-side, and uttered dis- 
tinctly the following sentence : " I have done for my country, and 
for all mankind, all that I could do, and I now resign my soul, 
without fear, to my God, my daughter to my country." These 
were the last words he articulated — his last solemn declaration to 
the world — his dying ^vill and testament, bequeathing his most 
precious gifts, to his God, and to his country. All that was heard 
from him afterwards, was a hurried repetition, in indistinct and 
scarcely audible accents, of his favorite ejaculation. Nunc Diniit- 
tas, Domine — Nunc Dimittas, Domine. He sunk away imper- 
ceptibly, and breathed his last, without a struggle or a murmur, at 
ten minutes before one o'clock, on the great Jubilee of American 
Liberty — the day, and hour too, on which the Declaration of In- 
dependence received its final reading, and the day, and hour, on 
which he prayed to Heaven that he might be permitted to depart. 
Astonishing coincidence \ wonderful euthanasia ! Was not the 
hand of God most affectingly displayed in this event, as if to add 
another, and a crowning one, to the multiplied proofs of His special 
superintendence over this bappy country? On the anniversarjr of 
a day the most distinguished in the annals of mankind — on the 
fiftieth anniversary of that momentous day — on a day, too, which 
his own great work had rendered thus momentous — at the identi- 
cal moment, when, fifty years before, he was engaged in repeating 
its sublime and eternal truths, for the final adoption of his country, 
— and in merciful fulfilment of his last earthly prayer, he closed his 
eyes in patriot ecstacy, amidst the thunders of artillery, and the 
lightnings of impassioned declamation, flashing from every temple, 
and the hosannas of a congregated nation, uniting with one voice 
in proclaiming the assurances of his immortality! The like feli 



% 



OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 555 

ous coiiibination has never happened in the world— no, nor can it 
ever happen, may be ahnost said with certainty. Few of the mir 
acles recorded in the sacred writings, are more conspicuous or impos- 
ing. Mark again — what did^ot escape the wonder a nd the record of 
the anxious spectators of the scene — the extraordinary protraction 
of physical existence, manifested in the last moments of Mr. Jef- 
ferson, as if to render the coincidence more strikingly and beautiful- 
ly complete. At 8 o'clock, P. M. on the 3d of July, his physician, 
of whose eminence it would be superfluous to speak, pronounced 
that he might be expected to cease to live, every quarter of an hour 
from that time. Yet he Hved seventeen hours longer, without any 
evident pain, or suffering, or restlessness; with sensibility, con- 
sciousness, and intelligence, for much more than twelve hours of 
the time ; and at last gradually subsided into inanimation like a 
lamp which had shone throughout a long, dark night, spreading far 
its beneficent rays, and had continued to burn enough to usher in 
broad day light upon mankind. His desire to see the noon-tide of 
the National Jubilee was thus wonderfully fulfilled, contrary to the 
expectations of all around him. Surely, a life so precious and il- 
lustrious, should, if possible, be rendered more estimable, more sa- 
cred, in contemplation of the incomprehensible felicity of his death. 
Never was this nation more profoundly impressed than by the 
occurrence of this event. When the first shock of the intelligence 
was over, the silent emotions of amazement yielded to interjection- 
al exclamations from every tongue, of mingled surprise, admiration, 
and awe. Instead of being viewed in the light of a calamity, there 
was not a heart which did not feel a thrill of rapture at the miracu- 
lous beauty of such a death. Friend met friend in mournful pleas- 
ure, and interchanged felicitations, broken with ejaculations of won- 
der, on the signal manifestation of the hand of heaven in our affairs. 
Business was suspended, from town to town, as the intelligence 
spread through the country; the minute guns were fired, the bells all 
sounded a funeral note, the flags of the shipping fell half mast, and 
every demonstration of profound feehng, spontaneously co-operated 
in marking with reverence the impressive occasion. Yet, while the 
nation was heaving with the first agitations of the shock, the report 
of the death of his venerable co-adjutor of Quincy, but five hours 
after, on the same day, came Uke a second bolt from the same Super- 
intending Hand, to confirm and redouble the awful solemnity of the 



556 LIFE, &C. OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

moment. Dying also in the same mighty spirit, with the last words, 
" Independence forever^'' and " Jefferson survives" — the one the 
Author of the Declaration of Independence, the other its great 
champion and defender on the floor of /Congress, and both the only 
two survivors of the committee appointed to prepare that instru- 
ment, — another and powerful confirmation was added, that 'Heav- 
en itself mingled visibly in the jubilee celebration of American Lib- 
erty, hallowing anew the day by a double apotheosis.' They were 
amiable and glorious in their lives ; in death they could not be di- 
vided. It was indeed a fit occasion for the deepest public feeling 
Happening singly, each of these events was felt as supernatural ; 
happening together, the astonishment, with the evidence, was ren- 
dered two fold, and almost overwhelming. 

In a private memorandum, found among some other obituary pa- 
pers of Mr. Jefferson, was the suggestion, that in case any memori- 
Itt of him should ever be thought of, a small granite obelisk should 
be erected, with the following inscription : 
Here hes buried 
THOMAS JEFFERSON, 
Author of the Declaration of Independence, 
Of the Statutes of Virginia for Religious Freedom, 
And Father of the University of Virginia. 

Volumes of panegyric could never convey so adequate an idea of 
unpretending greatness, as is contained in this brief and modest 
epitome of all the splendid achievments of a long, and arduous, and 
incessantly useful life ! 



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